TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 


DATE   PALM,  BEARING  FOUR  BUNCHES  OF  FRUIT 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 


THE  CLIMATE,  SOILS,  CULTURAL 
METHODS,  CROPS,  LIVE  STOCK, 
COMMERCIAL  IMPORTANCE  AND 
OPPORTUNITIES  OF  THE  TROPICS 


BY 
EARLEY  VERNON  WILCOX,  A.M.,  PH.D. 

STATES   RELATIONS   SERVICE,  U.  8.  DEPABTMENT   OF   AGRICULTURE 


ILLUSTtlVJTP 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 

1916 


COPYRIGHT,  1916,  BY 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


TO 
MY  PARENTS 

ABRAM  FRANK  WILCOX 

AND 

SALLY  MEAD  WILCOX 


355429 


PREFACE 

The  importance  of  tropical  agriculture  in  the  commerce 
of  the  world  is  increasing  daily.  Sugar,  coconuts,  coffee, 
tea,  cacao,  bananas,  fibers,  rubbers,  gums,  spices,  tans,  oils, 
tropical  woods,  silk,  ostrich  feathers,  and  the  hundreds  of 
other  tropical  products  hold  a  large  place  in  international 
trade.  The  United  States  imports  tropical  products  to  the 
value  of  more  than  $600,000,000  annually,  $350,000,000  in 
sugar,  coffee,  and  silk.  Year  by  year  new  tropical  products, 
previously  unknown  to  most  of  us,  are  added  to  the  list  of 
the  world's  economic  products.  Year  by  year  more  tropical 
products  pass  from  the  class  of  luxuries  to  the  necessities. 

The  English,  French,  Dutch,  Belgians,  and  Italians  are 
putting  forth  earnest  efforts  in  the  development  of  their 
tropical  colonies,  and  the  Latin  Americans  in  the  develop- 
ment of  their  own  countries.  Their  great  activity  in  scien- 
tific research  and  in  the  study  of  labor,  transportation,  mar- 
keting, and  general  economic  conditions  is  sufficient  evidence 
of  their  keen  interest  in  the  future  of  the  Tropics.  Experi- 
ment stations  and  departments  of  agriculture  are  being 
established  everywhere.  Studies  of  the  technical  utilization 
of  tropical  products  are  under  way.  Commercial  possibilities 
are  receiving  expert  attention. 

We,  as  a  nation,  have  reason  to  be  more  interested  in  these 
matters.  The  "splendid  isolation"  of  our  forefathers  is  a 
thing  of  the  past.  We  are  a  part  of  the  world.  Tropical 
products  are  brought  to  every  household.  The  humblest 
table  bears  food  products  from  Brazil,  Cuba,  India,  Java, 
Molucca  Islands,  Tahiti,  Mauritius,  Gold  Coast,  Jamaica, 
Hawaii,  Porto  Rico,  and  other  parts  of  the  Tropics.  We  are 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

the  largest  users  of  tropical  products  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth. 

The  Philippines,  American  Samoa,  Guam,  Hawaii,  the 
Canal  Zone,  and  Porto  Rico  belong  to  the  United  States. 
The  Philippines  with  their  abaca,  copra,  tobacco,  and  kapok ; 
Hawaii  with  its  sugar,  pineapples,  coffee,  and  sisal;  and 
Porto  Rico  with  its  sugar,  coffee,  tobacco,  citrus  fruit,  and 
pineapples  are  important  elements  in  the  tropical  world. 

Much  greater  development,  especially  in  the  line  of  diver- 
sification of  industries,  is  possible  in  all  our  tropical  posses- 
sions. Our  business  men  are  doing  their  part.  They  are 
in  the  vanguard  of  tropical  progress  with  their  technical  in- 
vestigations and  their  studies  of  commercial  conditions  in 
the  Tropics.  But  there  is  a  lack  of  information  on  tropical 
agriculture  among  the  general  public.  In  fact,  a  woeful 
ignorance  prevails  as  to  the  essential  nature  and  features  of 
tropical  problems.  I  have  been  asked  by  otherwise  intelli- 
gent persons  if  Spanish  is  the  prevailing  language  in  Hono- 
lulu, if  pineapples  grow  on  trees,  and  other  equally  signifi- 
cant questions.  How  can  the  serious  business  of  properly 
developing  our  own  part  of  the  Tropics  be  accomplished 
without  the  intelligent  interest  of  the  general  public  ? 

The  literature  of  tropical  agriculture  would  in  itself  make 
a  library  of  respectable  size.  In  the  appendix  to  this  volume 
I  have  given  some  hints  as  to  the  extent  of  this  literature. 
The  chief  contributors  to  this  field  of  knowledge  are  English, 
French,  Dutch,  Italians,  Belgians,  Germans,  and  Latin 
Americans.  Tropical  agriculture  has  received  only  scant 
attention  from  our  writers.  A  few  journals  devoted  to  tea, 
coffee,  spice,  fibers,  and  oils,  occasional  bulletins  from  the 
U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  publications  of  the  Ha- 
waii, Porto  Rico,  and  Guam  Experiment  Stations,  and  of 
the  Philippine  Bureau  of  Agriculture,  a  volume  on  the 
banana  trade  and  bulletins  from  the  Florida  and  California 
experiment  stations,  constitute  the  most  of  our  contribution 


PREFACE  « 

to  the  literature  of  tropical  agriculture.  We  have  produced 
many  handbooks  and  cyclopedias  of  horticulture,  agriculture 
and  live  stock,  but  these  books  treat  of  tropical  agriculture, 
if  at  all,  only  so  far  as  developments  in  Florida  and  Cali- 
fornia are  concerned.  No  American  writer  has  heretofore 
presented  a  general  account  of  tropical  agriculture. 

The  present  volume  is  written  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
general  reader,  business  man  and  agricultural  student.  I 
have  attempted  to  present  in  a  brief  form  what  everybody 
ought  to  know  about  the  Tropics.  Such  details  regarding 
the  cultivation  of  crops  as  are  of  interest  only  to  the  actual 
planter  in  the  Tropics  have  been  omitted.  Particular  atten- 
tion has  been  given  to  the  nature,  source,  and  commercial 
importance  of  tropical  products.  Not  all  economic  plants  of 
the  Tropics  have  been  included,  for  thousands  of  these 
plants  are  known  and  of  interest  only  in  a  restricted  locality. 
The  volume  contains  an  account  of  about  350  tropical  prod- 
ucts of  peculiar  interest  and  commercial  importance.  I  have 
also  attempted  to  present  an  intelligible  picture  of  animal 
industry  in  the  Tropics  as  well  as  of  climate,  soils,  and 
economic  conditions. 

This  is  a  book  on  tropical  agriculture  in  the  commercial 
sense,  the  production  of  things  to  eat,  wear,  and  use  in  tech- 
nical industries.  Without  extending  its  limits  too  greatly  no 
room  was  found  for  a  discussion  of  the  tropical  diseases  of 
live  stock  or  of  insect  pests  and  fungous  diseases.  With 
some  regret,  too,  I  have  found  it  necessary  to  omit  the  sub- 
ject of  ornamentals — the  endless  list  of  vines,  shrubs,  and 
trees  which  paint  the  tropical  landscape  with  their  brilliant 
flowers. 

The  literature  of  tropical  agriculture  abounds  in  exagger- 
ations. One  reads  of  yields  of  two  pounds  of  coir  fiber  per 
coconut,  of  240,000  pounds  of  bananas  per  acre,  along  with 
similar  astonishing  statements.  If  a  New  York  farmer 
should  read  that  yields  of  1,800  bushels  of  potatoes  per  acre 


*  PREFACE 

had  been  obtained  in  Oklahoma  he  would  question  the  state- 
ment at  once  even  if  he  had  never  been  in  Oklahoma.  But 
if  the  same  farmer  should  read  that  6,000  avocados  were 
borne  on  a  single  tree,  or  that  a  vanilla  plantation  yielded 
15  tons  of  vanilla  beans  per  acre,  he  might  be  bowled  over 
by  the  news,  but  he  would  probably  have  no  basis  in  experi- 
ence or  knowledge  for  denying  the  statement.  I  have  tried 
to  present  the  important  facts  of  tropical  agriculture  with- 
out the  glamor  of  romance,  but  I  hope  the  account  will  be 
none  the  less  interesting  to  the  general  reader. 

No  one  who  has  long  lived  in  the  Tropics  can  ever  forget, 
and  few  can  resist,  the  call  to  return  where  snows  and  the 
other  discomforts  of  northern  winters  are  mere  memories  of 
less  favored  climates.  The  multitude  of  curious  fruits,  the 
brilliant  butterflies,  the  gorgeous  birds,  the  flowering  trees, 
the  endless  summer,  the  coral  islands,  the  jungles,  the 
strange  peoples  and  their  still  stranger  customs — all  these 
are  woven  into  the  life  and  literature  of  the  Tropics.  In 
fact,  we  can  almost  forgive  the  early  writers  on  the  Tropics 
for  their  exaggerations.  But  sufficient  romance  still  lingers 
about  the  picture  of  the  Tropics  even  when  viewed  in  the 
full  light  of  day. 

The  personal  contact  of  the  writer  with  the  subject  matter 
of  this  volume  was  gained  during  a  residence  of  more  than 
six  years  in  Hawaii  in  charge  of  the  Hawaii  Agricultural 
Experiment  Station  and  by  visits  to  California,  Florida,  and 
Cuba.  Hawaii  is  sometimes  called  the  crossroads  of  the 
Pacific.  Every  ship  that  calls  at  Honolulu  carries  one  or 
more  agricultural  experts.  They  come  from  Formosa,  the 
Philippines,  Java,  Malaya,  Ceylon,  India,  Fiji,  Australia, 
Mauritius,  Egypt,  the  Congo,  the  West  Indias,  Mexico,  and 
elsewhere.  Opportunity  was  thus  had  to  discuss  the  prog- 
ress of  agriculture  with  men  from  all  pci.ts  of  the  tropical 
world. 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  stimulate  an  interest  in 


PREFACE  xi 

tropical  agriculture.  We,  as  a  nation,  need  to  know  more 
of  the  Tropics,  of  the  opportunities  they  offer  and  of  their 
great  commercial  importance.  We  need  to  know  more  of 
the  stupendous  racial  and  economic  problems  involved  in 
the  further  development  of  tropical  agriculture.  We  need 
especially  to  know  more  of  our  Latin  American  neighbors. 
If  this  book  serves  to  some  degree  in  focusing  the  earnest 
attention  of  the  American  reader  upon  the  wonderful  possi- 
bilities of  the  Tropics,  it  will  have  fulfilled  its  purpose. 

During  the  preparation  of  the  volume  I  received  many 
helpful  suggestions  from  Dr.  E.  W.  Allen,  Dr.  W.  H. 
Evans,  and  Mr.  E.  J.  Glasson,  all  of  the  Office  of  Experi- 
ment Stations.  The  proofs  were  read  by  Mrs.  Mabel  R. 
Wilcox.  In  the  selection  of  illustrations  most  courteous 
assistance  was  received  from  Mr.  David  Fairchild,  in  charge 
of  Foreign  Seed  and  Plant  Introduction,  U.  S.  Department 
of  Agriculture,  who  has  perhaps  done  more  than  any  other 
man  in  the  United  States  in  stimulating  a  general  interest 
in  tropical  agricultural  products. 

E.  V.  WILCOX. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  TROPICAL  CLIMATE  AND  ITS  EFFECTS  ON  MAN,  FARM  ANI- 

MALS AND  CROPS i 

Temperature.  Trade  winds.  Monsoons.  Thunder- 
storms. Rainfall.  Insular  climates.  Effect  of  forests 
on  climate.  Effect  of  tropical  climate  on  plants,  ani- 
mals and  man.  Hygiene  in  the  Tropics. 

II.  TROPICAL  SOILS    .....         .•        .         .       16 

Chemical  changes.  Leaching.  Iron  content.  Potash 
content  of  lava.  Laterite  soils.  Manganiferous  soils. 
Titaniferous  soils.  Coral  sand  soils.  Drainage.  Dyna- 
miting soils.  Rotations.  Cover  crops.  Cultivation. 

III.  AGRICULTURAL  METHODS  PECULIAR  TO  THE  TROPICS      .      24 
Shade.      Windbreaks.      Weed    eradication.      Insects. 
Plant  diseases. 

IV.  IMPORTANCE  OF  TROPICAL  PRODUCTS  IN  COMMERCE        .      29 
Technical  products.   Fruits.  Tropical  fruits  on  northern 
markets.     Statistics  of  tropical  imports.     Variety  and 
importance  of  tropical  products. 

V.  ECONOMIC  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  AND  OPPORTUNITIES 

IN  THE  TROPICS 35 

Early  exploitation.  Corporations.  Homesteads.  Inter- 
marriage and  race  mixture.  Opportunities  for  farmers 
and  trained  professional  men.  Profits  in  tropical  agri- 
culture. Need  of  a  fixed  policy  of  tropical  development. 

VI.  SUGAR  CANE 43 

World  trade.    Varieties.    Seedlings.    Selection.    Varia- 
tion in  sucrose  and  purity  of  juice.    Rattoons.    Water 
Requirements.       Fertilizers.       Cultivation.       Planting 

xiii 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

methods.  Harvesting  and  yields.  Mill  methods.  Mo- 
lasses. Sugar  producing  countries.  Sugar  production 
in  India. 

VII.  COCONUTS > •       -.      56 

Description.      Importance.      Products.     Area.      Yield. 
Varieties.    Planting.    Handling  the  crop.    Copra.    Co- 
conut oil.    Desiccated  coconut.    Coir.    Jaggery.    Coco- 
nuts in  the  Philippines  and  Cuba. 

VIII.  BEVERAGES       .        .        ..."       .         .        .        .        .      64 
Coffee.    Tea.    Cacao.    Mate.    Kola  nuts.    Guana. 

IX.  FRUITS  AND  NUTS       *        .        .        *        .        ,        .      82 
Bananas.     Pineapples.     Citrus    fruits.     Olive.     Date. 
Fig.     Avocado.     Mango.     Papaya.     Guava.     Feijoa. 
Pomegranate.     Tamarind.     Litchi.     Roselle.     Mangos- 
teen.   Custard  apples.   Loauat.   Malay  apples.   Surinam 
cherry.    Rose  apple.    Cape  gooseberry.    Passion  fruit. 
Mammee  apple.     Wampi.     Amatungula.     Star  apples. 
Durian.      Ceriman.     Jujube.      Sapodilla.      Carambola. 
Bael   fruit.     Ohelo  berry.     Japanese  persimmon.     Wi 
apple.    Otaheite  apple.    Almond.    Brazil  nut.    Pili  nut. 
Cashew  nut.    Pistachio  nut.    Queensland  nut. 

X.  STARCHY  FOODS    .        .        ..     v  .        .        .        .        .142 

Rice.  Millets.  Quinoa.  Sago.  Cassava.  Arrowroot. 
Sweet  potatoes.  Yams.  Queensland  arrowroot.  Udo. 
Dasheens.  Taros.  Yantias.  Taniers.  Breadfruit. 
Chayote.  Lotus.  Seaweed.  Ti. 

XL    TOBACCO   .^*     >     V»        .        .        .        +        *        .     160 
Producing  countries.     Early  use.     Cultural   methods. 
Curing.     Fermentation.     Classification  of  grades  and 
sorts. 

XII.    FIBER  PLANTS  ,:        ^       ,        •.        .       «•     •-••  \     •     166 
Cotton.     Jute.     Sisal.     Manila  hemp.     Banana  fiber. 
Ramie.    Kapok.    Milkweeds.    New  Zealand  flax.    Bow- 
string hemp.     Hibiscus  fibers.     Piassava  fiber.     Sunn 


CONTENTS  xv 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

hemp.  Pineapple  fiber.  Olona.  Devil's  cotton.  Raffia. 
Esparto  grass.  Papyrus.  Plants  used  for  paper,  hats, 
utensils,  and  other  purposes. 

XIII.  RUBBERS  AND  GUMS          .         .         .        .        .         .     193 

Rubber.      Gutta-percha.      Balata.      Jelutong.      Chicle. 
Camphor.    Other  gums  and  resins. 

XIV.  DRUGS 214 

Cinchona.  Cocaine.  Opium.  Nux  vomica.  Cubebs. 
Ipecacuanha.  Indian  hemp.  Copaiba.  Peru  balsam. 
Tolu  balsam.  Aloes.  Calabar  bean.  Catechu.  Jalap. 
Sarsaparilla.  Squill.  Senna.  Awa.  Areca  nut.  Quas- 
sia. Strophanthus.  Jaborandi.  Croton  oil. 

XV.  TANS  AND  DYES         * 228 

Gambier.    Mangrove.    Wattle  bark.    Quebracho.    Divi- 
divi.    Logwood.    Gamboge.    Fustic  wood.    Brazilwood. 
Indigo.    Henna.    Madder.    Annatto.    Safflower.    Saf- 
fron. 

XVI.  SPICES  AND  FLAVORINGS  .        .        ....     239 

Allspice.    Cardamoms.    Cassia  bark.    Cinnamon.    Chil- 

ies.  Coriander.  Caper.  Curry  powder.  Cummin. 
Pepper.  Long  pepper.  Grains  of  Paradise.  Cloves. 
Ginger.  Nutmeg.  Turmeric.  Vanilla. 

XVII.  PERFUMES       . 255 

Ylang-ylang.      Frankincense.      Tonka    bean.      Cassie. 
Myrrh.    Benzoin.    Oil  of  neroli.    Frangipani.    Berga- 
mot.    Champaca  oil.    Geranium  oil.    Vetiver.    Otto  of 
rose. 

XVIII.  OILS     . 263 

Drying  oils.  Semi-drying  oils.  Non-drying  oils.  Vege- 
table fats.  Essential  oils. 

XIX.  TIMBERS  AND  WOODS 290 

Mixed  tropical  forests.     Soft  woods.     Dipterocarpous 
trees  (sal  tree,  eng  tree).    Leguminous  trees  (catechu,      * 


xvi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGBS 

albizzia,  golden  shower,  rosewood,  Andaman  redwood). 
Ebony.  Coramandel  wood.  Lignum  vitae.  Mahogany. 
Kauri  pine.  Karri.  Sandalwood.  Koa.  Satinwood. 
West  Indian  cedar.  Ohia.  Teak.  Corkwood.  Cork. 
Vegetable  ivory. 

XX.  LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS          .        •*         .     301 
Legumes.    Grasses  in  the  Tropics.    Miscellaneous  for- 
age plants. 

XXI.  LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS  IN  THE  TROPICS    322 
Beef  cattle.    Zebu,  Bos  indicus.     Buffalo,  Bos  bubalus. 
Horses  and  mules.     Swine.     Sheep.     Goats.     Camel. 
Llama    and    alpaca.      Elephant.      Poultry.      Ostriches. 
Silk.    Bees.    Shellac.    Cochineal. 

APPENDIX  .         „        ,t      ..      •  ...        .         .         .         .        V    349 

Reference  books  relating  to  tropical  agriculture.  Peri- 
odicals relating  to  tropical  agriculture. 

INDEX         .        ...        ..        .         .....         •        ...        •     361 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Date  palm,  bearing  four  bunches  of  fruit        .        .    Frontispiece 


JACING 
PAGE 


Crown  of  coconut  tree  with  nuts  in  various  stages  of  growth      58 
Coffee  tree  in  bloom  in  Costa  Rica  .        .        .        .    •    .        .66 

Tea  hedges  in  Yendo,  Japan 70 

Field  of  smooth  cayenne  pineapples  in  Hawaii        ...      70 

Trunk  of  cacao  tree  bearing  ripe  pods 74 

Papoulu  banana,  a  Hawaiian  variety  to  be  eaten  baked        .      84 
Young  avocado  tree  in  fruit,  Trapp  variety    ....      92 

Sandersha  mango  tree  in  bearing    .        .        .        .        .        .92 

Papaya  tree  in  Miami,  Florida        .        .        ....    100 

Feijoa  twigs  and  fruit      .        .      ,  *        .        .        .        .        .    108 

Tamarind  pods  and  leaves        •     ?  y      V  •     •        •        •        .     108 

Fruiting  branch  of  litchi 116 

Roselle;  the  thick  calyx  is  the  edible  part  ,  122 

Cherimoyer,  one  of  the  custard  apples 122 

Olivier  variety  of  loquat .128 

Rose  apple,  flowers  and  fruit    .        .        .  .        .        .    134 

Portion  of  passion  vine  with  fruit 134 

Amatungula  or  Natal  plum,  fruit  and  flower        .        .        .140 

Sapodilla  from  Florida 140 

Dasheen  Tuber,  Trinidad  variety 144 

Breadfruit  tree  in  full  bearing,  Honolulu        .        .        .        .150 

Chayote,  fruit  and  portion  of  stem 154 

xvii 


xviii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


Lotus  pond  in  Chinanfu,  China 158 

Sisal  plants  in  the  Bahamas 170 

Kapok  tree  with  pods  in  Nassau 170 

Drying  sisal  fiber  in  Nassau    .        .    ',*.,.'-..    y       .  182 

Castilloa  rubber  trees  showing  method  of  tapping    ••-..        .  200 

Betel  nut  palm  in  Siam    ...        .        .        ...        .  224 

Mangrove  jungle  in  Florida    .       ,,        .  •     ...        .        .  224 

China  wood  oil  nut 264 

Harvesting  olives  in  Tebourba,  Tunis    .      '•;'••.        .        .  288 

Bamboo  plantation  in  Louisiana 288 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 


CHAPTER  I 

TROPICAL  CLIMATE  AND  ITS  EFFECTS  ON   MAN,  FARM 
ANIMALS   AND    CROPS 

INFORMAL  observations  concerning  the  weather  often  serve 
as  a  prelude  or  introduction  to  discussions  of  serious  moment 
concerning  affairs  of  religion,  science,  or  business.  It  is  per- 
haps well  to  begin  the  present  volume  with  a  brief  account 
of  tropical  climate.  Questions  concerning  the  nature  and 
effects  of  the  tropical  climate  are  among  the  first  which  are 
asked  by  those  who  are  planning  to  visit  the  Tropics  for  the 
first  time.  Among  persons  who  have  never  lived  in  tropical 
countries,  a  vast  deal  of  incorrect  notions  exists  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  climate  in  these  countries.  A  part  of  the  miscon- 
ception regarding  weather  conditions  in  the  Tropics  is  perhaps 
due  to  the  unfortunate  use  of  the  term  "temperate  climates" 
for  the  intermediate  zones  north  and  south  of  the  Equator. 
If  one  has  regard  to  the  real  meaning  of  the  word  temperate, 
this  word  should  be  applied  to  tropical  climates  rather  than  to 
the  climates  commonly  called  temperate,  for  it  is  in  the  temper- 
ate zones  that  the  greatest  extremes  of  weather  conditions, 
particularly  temperature,  occur.  In  the  temperate  zones,  for 
example,  are  recorded  temperatures  ranging  from  40°  or  50° 
below  zero  to  110°  or  120°  F.  This  would  give  a  total  annual 
range  of  temperature  of  150°  to  170°.  In  the  Tropics,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  temperature  seldom  rises  above  90°  and  rarely 
sinks  below  75°  at  sea  level.  This  is  truly  a  temperate  climate 
since  it  is  devoid  of  both  extremes  and  shows  a  range  of  only 
15°  of  temperature. 


8      £        ,      TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

As  is  well  known,  the  Tropics  are  included  within  a  zone 
about  the  center  of  the  earth  extending  23^°  north  and  south 
of  the  Equator.  The  northern  and  southern  boundaries  of  the 
Tropics  coincide  nearly  with  the  isotherm  68°  F.  for  the  cold- 
est month  of  the  year.  If,  therefore,  the  Tropics  are  defined 
not  as  a  geographical  zone  47°  wide,  but  as  the  area  bounded 
by  the  isotherm  just  mentioned,  it  will  be  found  that  this  area 
is  only  about  30°  wide  at  the  west  coast  of  Africa  and  of 
America  instead  of  the  normal  47°.  As  is  already  indicated,  it 
is  in  the  subtropics  or  so-called  temperate  climates  that  the 
highest  temperatures  and  greatest  range  of  temperature  are 
recorded.  For  example,  temperatures  of  110°  to  120°  F.  during 
the  summer  months  are  not  of  rare  occurrence  in  certain  parts 
of  the  mainland  of  the  United  States.  In  Jacobabad,  India, 
a  temperature  of  127°  F.  has  been  recorded.  This  locality 
is  outside  of  the  tropical  zone.  Moreover,  the  high  tempera- 
tures which  occur  in  summer  in  mainland  cities  like  Washing- 
ton, Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  and  Chicago,  are  frequently  accom- 
panied with  a  high  relative  humidity  making  the  weather  com- 
bination as  a  whole  much  more  trying  and  difficult  to  endure 
than  the  times  of  highest  temperature  in  strictly  tropical  cli- 
mates. Temperatures  in  the  Tropics  are  affected  by  elevation 
in  the  same  manner  as  in  temperate  climates.  Everywhere  the 
mean  temperature  falls  about  4°  for  every  1,000  feet  of  eleva- 
tion. At  the  Equator  the  elevation  at  which  frost  occurs  is 
about  18,000  feet.  On  the  Island  of  Hawaii  at  an  altitude  of 
20°  north  the  frost  elevation  is  about  4,500  feet.  An  idea 
of  the  range  of  temperature  in  certain  well  known  tropical 
cities  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  data:  In  Cairo, 
Egypt,  the  mean  winter  temperature  is  56°  and  the  mean  sum- 
mer temperature  83°  F.  Bogota,  Colombia,  lies  at  consider- 
able elevation  and  possesses  the  adva«tage  of  perhaps  the  most 
remarkably  uniform  temperature  of  any  city  in  the  world.  Its 
average  daily  temperature  is  60°  F.  the  year  round.  In 
Colombo  a  rather  uniform  temperature  alternation  occurs,  giy- 


TROPICAL  CLIMATE  3 

ing  a  daily  range  of  only  about  11°.  At  this  city  the  night 
temperature  is  about  75°  and  the  day  temperature  about  86°. 
In  Honolulu,  the  lowest  temperature  recorded  in  30  years  is 
52°  and  the  highest  89°  R,  giving  a  total  range  of  37°  R 

With  the  very  slight  range  of  temperature  in  tropical  coun- 
tries, it  is  obvious  that  no  sudden  changes  of  temperature  can 
possibly  occur.  There  is,  therefore,  ordinarily  no  occasion  for 
any  changes  in  the  nature  or  weight  of  clothing  from  one  sea- 
son to  another.  So  far  as  the  extremes  of  temperature  and 
the  range  of  temperature  and  consequent  necessary  adjust- 
ments of  the  body  are  concerned,  the  Tropics  possess  a  decided 
advantage  over  all  temperate  and  less  favored  climates. 

The  crops  which  are  characteristic  of  the  Tropics  extend 
for  considerable  distances  outside  of  the  strict  boundaries  of 
the  tropical  zone.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  in  a  discussion  of 
tropical  agriculture  to  include  subtropical  countries  in  order 
not  to  be  forced  to  draw  too  arbitrary  boundaries.  In  the  mat- 
ter of  tropical  climate  an  important  factor  in  further  soften- 
ing and  ameliorating  the  tropical  heat  is  found  in  the  trade 
winds.  These  winds  rise  about  30°  north  and  south  of  the 
Equator  and  blow  toward  the  Equator  with  a  slight  westerly 
deflection  as  far  as  the  doldrum  belt.  North  of  the  Equator, 
therefore,  the  trade  wind  is  a  northeast  wind,  while  south  of 
the  Equator  it  is  a  southeast  wind.  The  "trades"  are  uni- 
versally gentle  winds  and  in  most  of  the  countries  within  the 
trade-wind  belt,  especially  in  islands,  the  trade  winds  blow 
practically  continuously  night  and  day  for  from  250  to  280 
days  of  the  year.  These  gentle  winds  are  dry  and  cooling. 
When  the  velocity  of  the  trade  wind  is  relatively  high  the  evap- 
oration caused  by  the  "trades"  is  very  great.  They  therefore 
not  only  serve  to  cool  the  body,  but  also  to  lower  the  tempera- 
ture of  plants  by  transpiration. 

At  irregular  intervals  the  trade  winds  are  interrupted  by 
winds  variously  known  as  reverse  trades,  monsoons,  kona 
winds,  etc.  The  southeast  trades  become  southwest  monsoons 


4  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

in  southern  India  about  the  middle  of  June  when  the  rainy 
season  begins.  This  change  from  southeast  to  southwest  wind 
occurs  every  year  on  almost  the  same  day  of  the  year  so  that 
it  is  possible  to  know  in  advance  almost  the  precise  day  on 
which  the  rainy  season  will  begin.  In  Hawaii  the  regular 
trade-wind  season  extends  ordinarily  from  April  to  October. 
During  this  time  there  is,  for  the  most  part,  little  interruption 
of  the  trade  wind.  During  the  winter  season  and  less  fre- 
quently during  the  summer  the  trade  wind  may  be  interrupted 
by  periods  of  from  one  to  seven  or  more  days,  during  which 
there  is  either  no  definite  wind  or  more  frequently  a  southerly 
or  southwesterly  wind.  This  is  known  in  Hawaii  as  the  kona 
wind  and  invariably  is  accompanied  by  a  period  of  high  rela- 
tive humidity  and  consequent  discomfort.  The  natives  in 
Hawaii  call  the  kona  wind  the  sick  wind  on  account  of  the 
lassitude  and  depression  which  are  felt  while  it  prevails.  It 
seems  curious  that  on  a  group  of  islands  like  Hawaii  from 
which  the  nearest  land  is  distant  more  than  2,000  miles,  a 
wind  from  one  direction  should  be  dry,  while  from  another 
direction  it  is  decidedly  moist. 

The  occurrence  of  thunderstorms  is  a  matter  which  varies 
greatly  in  different  parts  of  the  Tropics  and  this  variation  is 
thus  far  without  any  very  satisfactory  explanation.  For  ex- 
ample, in  Cuba  rather  furious  thunderstorms  occur  during  the 
summer  season,  whereas  in  Hawaii  a  thunderstorm  is  a  rare 
event  and  occurs  only  during  a  period  of  kona  wind  and  never 
during  the  prevalence  of  trade  winds. 

While  the  Tropics  are  temperate  in  the  matter  of  tempera- 
ture, they  show  enormous  variation  in  rainfall  in  different 
countries  and  in  different  localities  in  these  countries.  The 
range  of  variation  in  the  matter  of  rainfall  runs  from  a  condi- 
tion of  almost  absolute  desert  to  an  average  rainfall  of  450 
inches  per  year.  Some  notion  of  the  range  of  rainfall  in  well 
known  localities  of  the  Tropics  and  subtropics  may  be  gained 
from  the  following  data:  The  average  annual  rainfall  for 


TROPICAL  CLIMATE  5 

Singapore  is  94  inches,  for  Bangkok  67  inches,  for  Formosa  43 
inches,  for  Manila  75  inches,  for  Vera  Cruz  68  inches,  for 
Habana  52  inches,  for  Honolulu  28  inches,  for  Burma  99 
inches,  and  for  Bengal  188  inches.  The  Kamerun  district  has 
a  rainfall  of  about  350  inches  a  year.  CherrajDongee  in  Assam 
has  an  average  annual  rainfall  of  458  inches  and  in  one  year 
the  annual  precipitation  reached  the  enormous  total  of  905 
inches. 

Within  the  trade-wind  belt  on  small  islands  like  those  which 
constitute  the  Hawaiian  group,  the  climate  of  the  lee  and 
windward  side  of  the  islands  is  decidedly  different.  The 
windward  side  receives  a  much  heavier  precipitation  and  is,  on 
the  whole,  cooler  than  the  lee  side.  The  variation  in  rainfall 
on  these  small  islands  is  a  strictly  local  matter  and  the  most 
astonishing  differences  in  vegetation  in  localities  separated  only 
a  few  miles  occur  as  the  result  of  this  extreme  variation  in 
rainfall.  For  example,  at  one  of  the  substations  of  the  U.  S. 
Experiment  Station  on  the  Island  of  Hawaii,  a  rainfall  of  360 
inches  was  recorded  for  one  year,  while  at  a  point  28  miles 
away  the  annual  rainfall  for  the  same  year  was  6  inches.  It 
is  possible,  therefore,  in  the  space  of  an  hour's  ride  to  pass 
from  a  desert  covered  with  cacti  and  other  drought-resistant 
plants  into  a  dense  tropical  jungle  reeking  with  moisture. 

In  all  tropical  countries  the  clearing  of  forests  makes  the 
climate  decidedly  drier  and  warmer.  The  effects  of  the 
removal  of  forests  in  tropical  countries  are  in  various  ways  far 
more  conspicuous  than  in  northern  climates.  Stock  grazing 
in  forests  on  account  of  the  destruction  of  undergrowth  and 
young  trees  may  change  a  given  tract  of  country  from  a  wet 
jungle  to  an  almost  desert  condition.  This  change  may  be 
followed  by  more  disastrous  wind  erosion  than  is  perhaps  ever 
witnessed  in  northern  climates.  The  islands  of  Kahoolawe 
and  Lanai,  particularly  the  former,  perhaps  illustrate  the  fear- 
ful effects  of  wind  erosion  to  the  best  advantage.  These 
islands  were  formerly  well  covered  with  native  forest  growth, 


6  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

With  the  extension  of  stock  grazing,  the  forest  trees  were 
destroyed,  especially  on  the  upper  elevations,  and  the  forest 
destruction  was  soon  followed  by  the  loss  of  moisture  from 
the  soil  due  to  the  increased  evaporation  under  the  exposure 
to  the  constant  trade  winds.  The  soils  of  these  islands  are 
fine  clay  in  mechanical  texture  and  are  readily  carried  away 
as  dust  in  the  wind.  During  a  period  of  moderately  strong 
trade  winds  a  continuous  dust  cloud  from  the  Island  of  Kahoo- 
lawe  is  visible  for  50  to  75  miles.  Parts  of  the  island  have 
been  eroded  by  the  wind  to  a  depth  of  over  200  feet  since  the 
destruction  of  the  forest  growth  on  the  higher  elevations. 
Similar  results  from  wind  erosion  are  to  be  seen  on  Lanai, 
but  the  damage  has  not  progressed  so  far  as  on  Kahoolawe. 
On  Lanai  there  are  regions  where  the  soil  has  been  carried 
away  to  a  depth  of  50  feet,  in  some  cases  leaving  columns  with 
a  small  shrub  or  a  bit  of  grass  or  native  plants  which  escaped 
destruction  and  have  remained  in  their  original  position,  thus 
holding  the  soil  in  place  and  checking  the  action  of  the  wind 
while  all  of  the  adjacent  soil  is  blown  away.  A  few  of  these 
isolated  columns  of  soil  standing  at  a  height  of  30  to  50  feet 
give  an  extremely  bizarre  aspect  to  the  landscape. 

While  the  old  contention  as  to  the  effect  of  forests  upon  the 
rainfall  of  a  given  locality  has  been  unfortunately  obscured 
and  unnecessarily  complicated  by  exaggerations  on  both  sides 
of  the  argument,  it  is  certain  that  the  presence  of  a  forest 
covering  on  the  tops  of  the  mountains  of  islands  lying  within 
the  trade-wind  belt  actually  increases  the  rainfall  and  is  of 
great  benefit  in  regulating  the  distribution  and  conservation  of 
the  water  of  these  islands.  It  should  be  remembered  that  rain 
storms  on  islands  in  the  trade-wind  belt  are  of  a  decidedly 
different  nature  from  those  which  occur  on  continental  areas, 
particularly  in  northern  climates.  As  a  rule,  precipitation  dur- 
ing the  prevalence  of  the  trade  wind  occurs  not  as  a  result  of 
the  formation  of  a  definite  storm  area,  but  as  a  result  of  a  cool- 
ing and  compression  of  air  due  to  its  impinging  upon  the 


TROPICAL  CLIMATE  7 

mountains  of  small  islands  and  being  forced  to  rise  in  order 
to  pass  over  the  mountains.  The  water  is  thus  in  a  sense 
squeezed  out  of  the  atmosphere  in  passing  over  the  high  points 
of  islands  lying  in  the  trade  winds.  It  may  thus  often  occur 
that  during  the  prevalence  of  clear  weather  on  the  windward 
side  of  an  island,  an  almost  constant  precipitation  of  rain  oc- 
curs high  up  on  the  mountain  side  and  this  rain  is  frequently 
blown  over  upon  the  lee  shoulder  of  the  mountains,  sometimes 
reaching  almost  to  the  sea  on  the  lee  side  of  the  island.  Such 
rains  are  brought  about  merely  by  the  presence  of  the  moun- 
tains and  occur  in  an  area  in  which  no  storm  conditions  in  the 
ordinary  sense  exist.  The  higher  the  mountain  the  heavier 
the  rainfall  caused  by  its  presence.  In  the  case  of  mountains 
of  no  more  than  4,000  or  5,000  feet  elevation,  the  presence 
of  a  forest  growth  upon  the  upper  ridges  exercises  a  great 
influence  in  increasing  precipitation.  A  part  of  the  explana- 
tion of  this  fact  is  to  be  found  in  the  radiation  of  heat  from 
forests  and  the  consequent  cooling  of  the  trees  and  increase  of 
precipitation  as  a  result. 

At  any  time  of  the  day  or  night,  therefore,  at  least  during 
the  prevalence  of  the  trade-wind  season,  the  atmosphere  may 
be  robbed  of  a  portion  of  its  moisture  by  coming  in  contact 
with  the  mountains  and  being  forced  to  rise  to  a  height  of 
5,000  feet  or  more  before  passing  on  in  the  general  course  of 
the  trade  wind.  This  peculiar  cause  of  rain  storms  brings 
about  the  frequent  occurrence  of  light  showers  in  a  perfectly 
clear  sky,  the  rain  being  precipitated  from  the  atmosphere  at 
the  tops  of  the  mountains  and  being  blown  down  over  the  lee 
side  of  the  island  by  the  trade  winds.  This  condition  is  often 
referred  to  by  the  natives  as  liquid  sunshine  and  gives  rise  to 
the  almost  daily  occurrence  of  brilliant  rainbows  and  the  fre- 
quent occurrence  of  lunar  rainbows. 

The  effect  of  tropical  climate  upon  plants  is  manifested  in 
various  ways.  Some  plants  which  are  annuals  in  cold  climates 
become  perennials  in  the  Tropics.  Similarly,  some  plants  which 


8  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

remain  strictly  herbs  in  cold  climates  become  shrubs  or  small 
trees  in  the  Tropics.  The  Lantana,  which  is  cultivated  as  a 
more  or  less  delicate  greenhouse  plant  in  cold  climates,  be- 
comes a  shrub  varying  in  height  from  4  to  15  feet  and  shows 
an  aggressiveness  which  makes  it  one  of  the  very  worst  of 
the  weed  pests.  Cotton,  which  is  cultivated  strictly  as  an 
annual  in  the  cotton  belt  of  the  mainland,  grows  as  a  perennial 
in  the  Tropics  and  will  live  and  bear  for  25  to  40  years, 
although  the  best  yields  are  obtained  by  cutting  it  back  after 
each  crop  and  treating  it  practically  as  an  annual.  The  pigeon 
pea,  which  is  a  useful  leguminous  cover  crop  will,  if  left  to  itself, 
become  practically  a  small  tree  attaining  a  diameter  of  eight 
inches  or  more.  The  formation  of  annual  rings  in  trees  is,  as 
is  well  known,  due  to  the  difference  in  rapidity  of  growth  dur- 
ing the  height  of  the  growing  season  and  the  fall  season  just 
before  growth  ceases.  Since  no  such  seasons  prevail  in  the 
Tropics  there  are  no  definite  annual  rings  in  forest  trees. 

Most  trees  in  the  Tropics  are  evergreen,  shedding  their 
leaves  the  year  round  a  few  at  a  time.  A  few  trees,  however, 
shed  their  leaves  all  at  one  time.  The  Ceara  rubber  tree  and 
kapok  are  conspicuous  examples  of  this  sort.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  absence  of  temperature  seasons  in  the  Tropics,  plants 
nevertheless  have  seasons  of  growth  and  periods  of  rest. 
There  are,  therefore,  best  times  to  plant  in  the  Tropics  as  in 
cold  climates.  The  reason  for  recommending  particular  sea- 
sons for  planting  is  usually  based  on  the  prospects  of  rain- 
fall and  relatively  cool  weather.  A  number  of  plants  thrive 
best  in  their  early  stages  if  planted  at  the  beginning  of  the 
winter  season.  This  is  perhaps  nearly  always  true  for  Irish 
potatoes  and  corn,  which  in  Hawaii,  at  any  rate,  make  a  much 
better  growth  if  planted  in  November  or  December  than  if 
planted  in  April.  Even  this  recommendation,  however,  must 
be  limited  strictly  to  sea  level,  for  at  high  elevations,  particu- 
larly above  4,000  feet,  the  best  season  for  planting  these  crops 
is  in  March  or  April.  Many  tropical  plants,  as  is  well  known, 


TROPICAL  CLIMATE  9 

bear  the  year  round  without  any  evidence  of  a  particular  sea- 
son of  activity.  Bananas  and  papayas  are  conspicuous  ex- 
amples of  this  kind.  From  a  plantation  of  either  bananas  or 
papayas  fruit  can  be  picked  during  any  month  of  the  year.  In 
fact,  with  papayas  there  are  ripe  fruit  on  the  tree  every  day 
the  year  round.  Mangoes  and  avocados  show  a  tendency  to 
flower  and  produce  their  fruit  within  a  relatively  restricted 
season.  By  the  use  of  early  varieties,  however,  it  is  possible 
to  extend  the  season  of  these  fruits  over  a  period  of  six  months 
or  more. 

Most  tropical  plants  can  be  acclimated  in  subtropical  coun- 
tries. In  southern  Florida,  for  example,  nearly  all  of  the  well 
known  tropical  plants,  with  the  exception  of  breadfruit,  cacao, 
and  rubber  can  be  grown  with  more  or  less  success.  Some, 
however,  cannot  be  acclimated  even  in  the  subtropics.  This 
is  conspicuously  true  of  such  plants  as  cacao,  which  will  thrive 
only  in  the  true  Tropics  near  sea  level,  protected  from  the 
wind,  and  favored  with  an  abundance  of  rainfall.  Conversely, 
many  plants  from  northern  climates  cannot  be  successfully  ac- 
climated in  the  Tropics.  This  is  true  to  some  extent  of  a  large 
percentage  of  the  well  known  trees  of  temperate  climates. 
The  oak,  for  example,  does  not  appear  to  be  able  to  adjust 
itself  to  tropical  conditions.  It  remains  ever  green,  shedding  a 
few  leaves  occasionally,  but  showing  an  extremely  poor 
growth.  There  are  specimens  in  Hawaii  20  to  25  years  old 
not  higher  than  four  or  five  feet.  Apples  and  peaches  behave 
in  a  peculiar  manner  in  the  Tropics.  These  fruits  are  not 
well  adapted  to  tropical  conditions  and  do  not  yield  satisfactory 
results  except  at  higher  altitudes.  Near  sea  level  the  peach 
tree  may  be  seen  at  almost  any  time  of  the  year  with  buds, 
flowers,  young  peaches  of  all  sizes,  and  ripe  peaches  at  the 
same  time.  There  seems  to  be  no  tendency  to  establish  a  defi- 
nite period  of  fruiting  under  tropical  conditions.  Similarly 
with  apples,  one  branch  or  one  side  of  the  tree  may  bear  at 
one  season  and  another  branch  at  another  season,  and  a  given 


10  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

branch  may  show  flowers  and  green  and  ripe  apples  at  the 
same  time. 

The  effect  of  temperature,  so  far  at  least  as  it  is  felt  by 
plants  and  animals,  seems  to  be  a  relative  matter.  Plants  suf- 
fer in  the  Tropics  at  times  from  the  low  temperatures  which 
prevail,  although  these  temperatures  may  not  be  below  65°  F. 
The  effect  of  temperature  upon  plants  appears  to  be  almost 
entirely  a  matter  of  adaptation  on  the  part  of  the  plants.  On 
the  high  plateaus  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  of  the  mainland  one 
may  see  certain  spring  flowers  which  have  actually  forced 
their  way  through  an  inch  or  more  of  ice  to  bloom  above  the 
surface  of  the  ice  and  snow.  These  plants  are  frozen  as  stiff 
as  icicles  every  night  and  yet  are  not  affected  by  such  tem- 
perature conditions.  In  tropical  conditions,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  temperature  of  65°  F.  at  night,  especially  if  accompanied 
with  a  rather  high  wind,  may  injuriously  check  the  growth  of 
many  plants  and  may  even  turn  the  leaves  of  cotton  brown  as 
if  from  the  effects  of  frost.  Similarly  with  man  and  animals, 
the  lowest  temperatures  which  occur  in  the  Tropics  seem  to 
be  felt  as  cold,  and  a  certain  amount  of  discomfort  is  experi- 
enced by  both  man  and  animals  when  the  temperature  descends 
as  low  as  65°  F. 

In  tropical  countries  nearly  all  animals  can  find  food  for 
themselves  the  year  round,  and  if  they  escape  from  domestica- 
tion on  farms  they  may  run  wild.  We  have  therefore  in  nearly 
all  tropical  countries  wild  cattle,  horses,  asses,  sheep,  goats, 
chickens,  turkeys,  pea  fowl,  dogs,  cats,  etc.  In  some  of  the 
rough  mountain  districts  of  Hawaii  wild  goats  which  are  de- 
scended from  goats  escaped  from  domestication  on  the  farms 
have  become  a  veritable  scourge  requiring  organized  expedi- 
tions of  hunters  for  their  destruction.  Similarly,  pigs,  cattle, 
and  sheep  after  escaping  from  restraint  have  multiplied  rapidly 
and  occupied  the  rougher  mountain  regions,  destroying  much 
of  the  grazing  which  is  required  for  the  more  improved  strains 
of  domestic  animals.  The  common  breeds  of  poultry,  after 


TROPICAL  CLIMATE  11 

escaping  from  domestication  and  breeding  for  two  or  three 
generations  in  the  mountains,  develop  powers  of  flight  equal 
to  those  of  the  pheasant,  and  while  retaining  the  color  of  the 
domestic  strain,  gain  somewhat  in  elegance  and  trimness  of 
form.  On  the  Island  of  Lanai,  turkeys  may  be  found  in  all 
stages  of  domestication  and  wildness,  ranging  from  those 
which  may  be  approached  and  petted  near  a  ranch  house  to 
those  which  fly  on  the  approach  of  man  as  vigorously  as  do 
the  wild  turkeys  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains. 

In  general,  domestic  animals  in  the  Tropics  reach  a  smaller 
size  and  produce  less  milk  than  in  northern  climates.  This 
statement,  of  course,  refers  only  to  the  improved  breeds  of 
domestic  animals  developed  in  northern  climates  and  shipped 
into  tropical  countries.  It  is  impossible,  for  example,  to  bring 
Hereford  or  Shorthorn  steers  in  tropical  countries  up  to  the 
standard  weight  for  northern  climates.  Similarly,  with  the 
best  strains  of  Holstein,  Jersey,  Guernsey,  or  other  dairy  cows, 
it  is  impossible  to  secure  a  heavy  milk  yield  even  with  the  best 
and  most  expensive  rations.  It  is  a  rather  rare  accomplish- 
ment for  Jersey  or  even  Holstein  cows  in  the  Tropics  to  pro- 
duce 5,000  pounds  of  milk  in  a  year,  and  the  average  yield  is 
far  below  that,  probably  not  more  than  2,500  pounds.  The 
tendency  to  produce  less  milk  and  to  reach  maturity  at  a 
smaller  size  than  in  the  northern  climate  may  be  considered 
as  the  result  of  an  unexplained  influence  of  the  tropical  climate. 

The  weather  problem,  however,  which  is  uppermost  in  the 
mind  of  the  tourist  and  intending  settler  in  the  Tropics,  is 
concerned  with  the  effect  of  tropical  climate  upon  man  and 
with  especial  precautions  which  he  may  need  to  take  in  order 
to  live  comfortably  and  in  health.  In  former  days  travelers 
were  wont  to  regale  us  with  tales  of  the  frightful  ravages  of 
the  tropical  diseases.  Many  of  these  diseases  were,  and  still 
are,  in  some  localities  of  serious  consequence.  So  much  atten- 
tion was,  and  still  is,  paid  to  them  that  the  reading  public  be- 
came quite  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  general  aspects  of  the 


12  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

problem  of  tropical  hygiene.  As  a  result  of  the  great  amount 
of  medical  and  popular  attention  which  has  been  given  to 
these  diseases,  the  average  reader  who  has  not  been  in  the 
Tropics  probably  has  the  fixed  notion  that  the  chief  dangers 
likely  to  be  met  in  the  Tropics  are  the  specific  tropical  and 
Oriental  diseases,  such  as  typhus  fever,  yellow  fever,  amebic 
dysentery,  Asiatic  cholera,  plague,  leprosy,  etc.  This,  how- 
ever, would  be  a  highly  erroneous  conception  regarding  many 
districts  and  cities  of  tropical  countries.  On  account  of  the 
universal  fear  of  tropical  diseases  felt  by  the  white  settlers  of 
tropical  countries,  an  unusual  effort  has  been  put  forth  in 
nearly  all  parts  of  the  Tropics  to  bring  about  sanitary  condi- 
tions with  reference  primarily  to  the  specific  diseases  which 
inspire  an  almost  universal  terror  of  the  Tropics. 

The  results  of  this  unusual  medical  and  sanitary  campaign 
have  been  surprisingly  effective,  producing,  in  the  case  of  sev- 
eral tropical  cities,  sanitary  conditions  superior  to  those  of 
northern  cities.  All  the  world  knows  how  Hiabana  and 
Panama  were  freed  from  yellow  fever.  The  city  of  Habana 
now  has  a  lower  death  rate  than  has  any  city  on  the  mainland 
of  the  United  States.  Likewise  in  Honolulu,  there  is  no 
reason  for  fearing  tropical  diseases.  The  most  serious  dis- 
eases in  Honolulu  are  precisely  the  same  as  those  which 
prevail  throughout  the  United  States,  namely,  pneumonia,  tu- 
berculosis, and  typhoid  fever.  Cases  of  leprosy,  plague,  and 
Asiatic  cholera  are  of  such  rare  occurrence  as  to  be  negligible 
in  reaching  a  conclusion  as  to  whether  or  not  to  visit  Honolulu. 
The  clean-up  campaigns  which  have  been  carried  on  in  many 
tropical  cities  have  reduced  the  fly  and  mosquito  nuisances  to 
a  minimum.  In  so  far  as  mosquitoes,  flies,  cockroaches,  rats, 
and  the  other  annoying  and  disgusting  pests  of  cities  are  con- 
cerned, Habana,  for  example,  is  superior  to  any  city  of  the 
United  States.  An  incidental  result  of  the  application  of  sani- 
tary methods  for  the  control  of  tropical  diseases  is  also  seen 
in  lowering  the  number  of  cases  of  other  diseases. 


TROPICAL  CLIMATE  13 

In  tropical  countries,  the  nights  are  almost  universally  cool 
and  comfortable.  The  range  of  temperature,  as  already  stated, 
is  never  great,  the  total  annual  range  rarely  being  greater  than 
30°.  Moreover,  there  are  no  extremes  of  temperature  to  be 
endured.  It  is  possible  in  all  tropical  countries  to  live  prac- 
tically out-of-doors,  at  least  with  doors  and  windows  con- 
stantly open.  The  question  of  fresh  air  and  ventilation  is, 
therefore,  solved  automatically.  The  same  weight  of  clothes 
can  be  worn  the  year  round,  thus  avoiding  the  necessity  for 
the  bodily  adjustments  rendered  inevitable  by  the  rigors  of  the 
northern  climates. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  many  of  the  tropical  cities 
have  been  rendered  even  more  sanitary  from  the  viewpoint  of 
specific  diseases  than  are  northern  cities,  and  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  tropical  cities  possess  almost  none  of  the  ordi- 
nary discomforts  of  climatic  conditions  and  changes,  it  still 
remains  doubtful  whether  the  Tropics  are  well  adapted  for  the 
permanent  residence  of  the  white  man.  It  has  not  been  ade- 
quately explained,  and  perhaps  may  never  be  fully  explained, 
why  the  delightfully  uniform  and  comfortable  climate  of  the 
Tropics  lowers  the  vitality  and  vigor  of  a  considerable  per- 
centage of  the  white  men  who  go  to  live  in  the  Tropics.  While 
it  may  not  be  possible  to  explain  this,  it  is  nevertheless  a  fact. 
Some  persons  are  affected  by  a  general  lassitude  and  depres- 
sion within  a  few  days  after  landing  in  a  tropical  city,  others 
are  not  affected  at  all,  or  only  after  a  long  residence  without 
any  trips  in  the  meantime  to  colder  climates.  There  is  no 
way  of  predicting  who  will  be  injuriously  affected  and  who 
not  by  going  to  the  Tropics.  The  depressing  influence  of  cli- 
mate may  be  shown  most  strongly  in  a  vigorous,  healthy  in- 
dividual and  may  not  be  manifestec  it  all  in  invalids  or 
weakly  persons  who  go  to  the  Tropics  for  a  visit  or  for  per- 
manent residence. 

It  is  a  common  and  apparently  well  founded  belief  that 
most  white  races  of  the  Tropics  should  pay  a  visit  to  some 


14  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

cold  climate  at  intervals  not  greater  than  once  in  three  years. 
In  most  instances,  women  probably  feel  the  depressing  influ« 
ence  of  tropical  climates  more  keenly  than  men.  This  fact 
also  is  still  without  any  satisfactory  explanation. 

One  may  venture  the  suggestion  that  a  part  explanation  of 
the  lowering  of  vitality  experienced  by  white  persons  after  a 
long  residence  in  the  Tropics  is  found  in  lack  of  exercise.  One 
feels  so  completely  comfortable  at  all  times  in  tropical  cli- 
mates that  there  appears  to  be  no  immediate  necessity  for 
exercise  or  exertion.  It  may  not  occur  to  the  ordinary  indi- 
vidual for  some  time  that  he  is  taking  less  exercise  than  was 
his  custom  in  colder  climates.  It  is,  however,  a  matter  of 
common  observation  that  no  one  can  remain  well  in  tropical 
countries  without  regular  exercise  or  physical  work.  The 
assertion  may  therefore  reasonably  be  ventured  that  the  one 
universal  enemy  of  the  white  man  in  the  Tropics  is  not  tropi- 
cal disease,  but  plain  laziness. 

This  laziness  is  of  such  an  insidious  nature  that  one  readily 
yields  to  the  tradition  quite  apparent  in  tropical  countries  that 
it  is  actually  dangerous  for  the  white  man  to  work.  This  con- 
clusion is  the  more  readily  accepted  when  one  realizes  that 
practically  all  of  his  fellows  have  accepted  the  same  conclu- 
sion and  have  become  surrounded  with  the  swarm  of  Oriental 
servants  so  ready  to  perform  every  service  involving  manual 
labor.  In  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  and  Hawaii,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  are  colonies  of  white  farmers  working  in  the  fields  at 
heavy  physical  labor  in  the  manner  to  which  they  were  accus- 
tomed in  northern  regions  and  remaining  in  the  most  vigorous 
health  during  their  whole  life  time.  In  view  of  the  accumu- 
lated experience  of  white  farmers  and  business  men  through- 
out the  tropical  countries  of  the  world,  one  would  seem  to  be 
justified  in  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  the  necessity  for 
physical  exercise  is  not  removed  by  settling  in  the  Tropics. 

In  connection  with  the  general  sanitary  conditions  of  the 
Tropics,  many  questions  arise  in  the  minds  of  visitors  as  to  the 


TROPICAL  CLIMATE  15 

health  fulness  and  nutritive  value  of  tropical  foods.  On  this 
point  it  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  at  any  length.  In  all  tropi- 
cal countries,  all  tropical  foods  are  safe,  except  vegetables  to 
be  eaten  raw,  and  surface  water.  Lettuce,  celery,  radishes, 
strawberries,  etc.,  irrigated  by  Chinese  methods,  are  not  safe 
foods,  particularly  in  case  of  an  outbreak  of  Asiatic  cholera, 
and,  moreover,  are  riot  appetizing  under  any  circumstances, 
if  one  knows  by  first  hand  observation  something  of  the  meth- 
ods of  Oriental  irrigation.  Surface  water  can  nowhere  be 
recommended  for  use  without  boiling.  This  is  equally  true 
for  northern  climates.  In  the  Tropics,  however,  there  are 
added  dangers  from  the  prevalence  of  minute  worms  as  well 
as  the  possibility  of  typhoid  and  cholera  infection. 

The  main  point  in  keeping  well  in  the  Tropics  is  to  remem- 
ber that  a  reasonable  amount  of  physical  exercise  is  absolutely 
necessary,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  general  comfort- 
able feeling  may  easily  persuade  one  to  think  that  exercise 
may  be  omitted  from  the  daily  routine.  It  is  perhaps  well  for 
everyone  to  continue  the  same  form  of  exercise  to  which  he 
was  accustomed  in  the  colder  climates.  Some  exercise  hobby, 
however,  seems  to  be  strictly  required,  and  the  Tropics  offer 
the  same  list  of  recreations  as  colder  climates,  namely,  tennis, 
golf,  baseball,  football,  horseback  riding,  rowing,  mountain 
climbing,  and  hunting. 


CHAPTER  II 
TROPICAL   SOILS 

MANY  chemical  changes  are  hastened  by  the  application  of 
heat.  This  is  illustrated  by  the  rapidity  with  which  chemical 
changes  take  place  in  soils  under  the  influence  of  constant 
warm  weather.  Rocks  and  soils  decompose  with  remarkable 
rapidity  in  the  Tropics.  Even  fresh  lava  flows  in  a  district 
of  abundant  rainfall  may  become  sufficiently  disintegrated  in 
five  to  ten  years  to  furnish  suitable  conditions  of  growth  for 
a  considerable  variety  of  plants.  In  fact,  volcanic  cinder,  if 
blown  out  in  a  state  of  sufficiently  fine  fragmentation,  is  im- 
mediately available  as  a  soil.  The  only  element  of  plant  food 
in  which  such  material  is  deficient  is  nitrogen.  In  regions  of 
modern  volcanic  flows  and  eruptions,  there  are,  therefore, 
many  soils  of  very  recent  origin.  These  soils  differ  greatly 
in  physical  and  chemical  composition  from  the  familiar  soils 
of  temperate  climates.  The  basaltic  lava  from  volcanoes 
may  be  disintegrated  in  place  to  form  soils  containing  a  mix- 
ture of  mineral  elements  in  essentially  the  same  proportion  in 
which  they  occurred  in  the  original  basalt.  These  soils  have 
not  been  altered  like  the  old  alluvial  soils  by  ages  of  secondary 
chemical  changes  and  by  the  slow  process  of  segregation  of 
certain  mineral  forms  so  characteristic  of  secondary  rocks  and 
their  resulting  soils. 

Notwithstanding  the  recent  origin  of  many  tropical  soils, 
particularly  in  volcanic  regions,  it  is  obviously  impossible  for 
these  soils  long  to  retain  the  composition  of  the  original  basaltic 
lava.  Extensive  leaching  takes  place  under  the  influence  of 
heavy  tropical  rainfall.  This  leaching  affects  not  only  the 

16 


TROPICAL  SOILS  17 

original  constituents  of  the  disintegrated  lava,  but  also  the 
fertilizer  materials  which  are  applied  to  such  soils.  Lime  and 
nitrate  of  soda  are  readily  leached  out  of  volcanic  soils,  while 
ammonium  sulphate  and  phosphates  are  fixed  in  the  soils  to 
a  rather  surprising  extent.  The  humus  content  of  tropical  soils 
is  ordinarily  high.  This  is  due  to  the  great  mass  of  vegetation 
produced  under  tropical  conditions.  If,  however,  there  are 
long  intervals  between  the  rainy  seasons,  the  humus  in  soils 
is  rapidly  decomposed  under  the  influence  of  heat  and  aeration. 
Practically  all  tropical  soils  contain  a  relatively  high  per- 
centage of  iron.  In  Hawaii,  the  iron  content  of  soils  is  10  to 
45  per  cent,  (usually  about  20  per  cent.)  ;  in  Samoa,  15  to 
20  per  cent. ;  in  Kamerun,  7  to  14  per  cent. ;  in  Madagascar, 
about  10  per  cent. ;  and  in  India,  2  to  48  per  cent.  This  iron 
commonly  exists  in  the  condition  of  three  oxids,  the  ferrous, 
ferric,  and  magnetic.  Fortunately  for  the  farmer  the  ferrous 
iron  is  usually  very  insoluble  except  when  the  soil  becomes 
puddled  so  that  suitable  aeration  can  not  take  place.  Granules 
of  magnetic  iron  oxid  are  of  much  more  frequent  occurrence 
in  volcanic  soils  than  in  the  old  soils  of  temperate  climates. 
In  Hawaii,  for  example,  magnetic  iron  is  present  to  an  appreci- 
able extent  in  all  soils,  as  may  be  seen  by  passing  a  magnet 
over  a  sample  of  pulverized  dry  soil.  These  magnetic  iron 
granules  are  black,  but  soon  assume  the  red  color  of  ferric  oxid 
as  the  result  of  further  oxidation.  In  certain  localities  there 
are  immense  quantities  of  volcanic  cinder  or  black  sand  which 
have  resulted  from  volcanic  explosions.  Several  crops  make 
a  satisfactory  growth  upon  pure  deposits  of  this  volcanic  cin- 
der. In  some  localities  in  Hawaii  the  cinder  contains  a  much 
higher  content  of  potash  than  the  ordinary  lava  resulting  from 
a  flow.  While  the  lava  obtained  from  ordinary  flows  contains 
slightly  less  than  one  per  cent,  of  potash  the  cinder  may  show 
from  two  to  five  per  cent,  of  potash.  This  potash  is,  however, 
not  immediately  available,  but  becomes  soluble  slowly  through 
the  gradual  disintegration  of  the  cinder.  The  volcanic  cinder 


18  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

is  quite  commonly  used  in  lawns  and  gardens  for  mixing  with 
the  heavy  soils  to  improve  the  aeration  and  the  drainage. 

The  so-called  clay  soils  of  certain  tropical  countries  are 
often  clay  only  in  mechanical  analysis,  not  in  composition. 
These  clays  are  not  aluminium  silicate  but  are  high  in  their 
content  of  iron  and  aluminium  hydrates  and  low  in  silicates. 
These  soils  are  commonly  referred  to  as  laterite  soils.  The 
term  is  not  easily  defined,  but  is  usually  taken  to  mean  heavy 
tropical  soils  formed  from  decomposing  lava  under  the  influ- 
ence of  heat,  tropical  downpours,  and  periods  of  drought. 

Laterite  soils  are  not  only  extremely  heavy,  but  pack  and 
puddle  badly.  The  texture  is  injured  by  any  manipulation 
while  the  soil  is  too  moist.  Even  when  allowed  to  stand  after 
a  year  or  two  without  cultivation  the  soils  become  so  badly 
packed  as  to  become  almost  impervious  to  air  and  water.  Dur- 
ing periods  of  drought  wide,  deep  cracks  form  in  such  soils 
and  the  cracks  are  quickly  filled  again  by  the  swelling  process 
which  occurs  with  the  return  of  the  rainy  season.  As  already 
stated,  however,  these  soils  are  not  true  clay  and  cannot  be 
used  for  the  formation  of  brick.  If  bricks  are  made  from 
laterite  soils  they  will  readily  disintegrate  under  the  influence 
of  weather  conditions.  The  huge  lumps  which  are  turned 
up  in  plowing  laterite  soils  gradually  slack  like  lumps  of  lime 
under  the  influence  of  moisture  and  sunshine. 

Mention  may  well  be  made  of  a  few  peculiar  soils  which  oc- 
cur in  Hawaii  and  elsewhere  in  the  Tropics.  The  most  highly 
manganiferous  soils  thus  far  studied  occur  in  Hawaii.  In  the 
mainland  soils  of  the  United  States  manganese  may  be  found 
as  a  mere  trace  and  usually  not  to  an  appreciable  extent.  In 
Hawaii,  however,  nearly  all  soils  contain  from  one-quarter  to 
one-half  per  cent,  of  manganese  and  in  certain  restricted  areas 
the  content  of  manganese  rises  to  10  per  cent.  Soils  which 
contain  three  per  cent,  of  manganese  or  more  are  floury,  of  a 
chocolate  color,  and  will  not  pack  like  the  ordinary  laterite 
soils,  but  remain  always  in  a  fine  state  of  tilth.  Not  all  crops, 


TROPICAL  SOILS  19 

however,  will  grow  satisfactorily  on  highly  manganiferous 
soils.  Pineapples,  for  example,  cannot  be  made  to  yield  satis- 
factory returns  on  soils  containing  more  than  2^2  or  3  per  cent, 
of  manganese.  The  presence  of  large  quantities  of  manganese 
in  the  soil  has  the  peculiar  effect  of  disturbing  the  mineral 
balance,  forcing  the  pineapple  to  absorb  lime  out  of  all  pro- 
portion with  magnesium.  The  result  of  this  unbalanced  soil 
solution  is  that  the  pineapple  leaves  lose  their  green  color,  be- 
coming yellowish  and  finally  dying,  while  the  fruit  turns  pink 
at  an  immature  stage  and  always  remains  much  more  acid 
than  normal  fruits. 

In  a  few  localities,  soils  of  a  very  high  titanium  content  oc- 
cur, the  titanium  sometimes  amounting  to  35  per  cent.  This 
element,  however,  has  no  apparent  effect  upon  the  growth  of 
plants.  In  one  restricted  locality  in  Hawaii  pineapples  thrive 
well  on  a  soil  pf  which  iron  and  titanium  alone  constitute  85 
per  cent.  Soils  with  a  high  titanium  content  have  a  bluish 
or  black  color,  especially  when  slightly  moist,  and  will  stain  the 
hands  almost  as  effectively  as  a  paint  pigment. 

Near  the  seashore  of  all  tropical  islands  surrounded  with 
coral  reefs  occur  areas  of  soil  constituted  largely  of  coral  sand. 
The  chief  constituent  of  this  sand  is  carbonate  of  lime.  Coral 
sand  mixed  with  a  small  percentage  of  soil  washed  down 
from  upper  levels  and  containing  minute  quantities  of  humus 
is  quite  satisfactory  for  the  growth  of  watermelons,  sweet 
potatoes,  coconuts,  and  a  number  of  other  crops.  The 
coral  sand  is  also  extensively  used  for  the  purpose  of  liming 
soils. 

One  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  laterite  soils  of  the  Tropics 
is  their  high  hygroscopic  moisture  content.  Many  of  the  deep, 
rich  soils  of  the  Western  States  have  a  hygroscopic  moisture 
content  of  about  12  or  13  per  cent.  The  laterite  soils  of  the 
Tropics,  however,  may  contain  24  per  cent,  of  moisture  in  an 
air-dry  condition.  It  is  quite  plain,  therefore,  that  these  tropi- 
cal soils  require  a  much  higher  total  moisture  content  for  the 


20  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

satisfactory  growth  of  crops  than  is  the  case  with  the  common 
soils  of  temperate  climates. 

It  is  a  peculiar  fact  that  on  tropical  islands  in  the  trade-wind 
belt  drainage  is  a  difficult  matter  on  the  lee  side,  while  little 
or  no  attention  need  be  given  to  drainage  on  the  windward  side 
of  the  island.  The  heavy  laterite  soils  on  the  lee  side  of  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  require  extremely  deep  plowing,  the  addi- 
tion of  green  manures,  and  sometimes  the  use  of  dynamite  and 
other  treatment  in  order  to  provide  suitable  drainage  for  mois- 
ture movement  and  for  the  process  of  aeration.  On  the  wind- 
ward side  of  the  same  island,  however,  under  a  much  greater 
rainfall  there  are  commonly  few  running  streams  and  appa- 
rently almost  no  superficial  runoff  of  water.  In  some  farming 
sections  of  the  windward  side  of  the  island  of  Hawaii,  water 
for  household  use  must  be  obtained  from  rain  water  cauglu 
from  the  roofs  of  buildings,  although  the  rainfall  for  months 
at  a  time  may  average  an  inch  a  day.  This  water  passes 
through  the  soil  and  on  into  the  porous  lava  rocks  underneath, 
furnishing  no  running  streams  or  standing  water. 

The  use  of  dynamite  in  improving  the  drainage  conditions 
and  tilth  of  soil  has  been  adopted  in  a  number  of  tropical 
countries.  The  object  in  using  dynamite  in  the  Tropics  is  not 
always  precisely  the  same  as  that  which  prevails  in  cold  cli- 
mates where  a  distinct  subsoil  or  hardpan  may  underlie  the 
arable  soil.  In  the  laterite  soils  of  the  Tropics  there  is  little 
or  no  distinction  between  soil  and  subsoil,  the  only  apparent 
change  being  one  of  color  in  passing  from  the  top  layer  to  a 
depth  of  four  or  five  feet.  Since,  however,  these  soils  pack 
very  firmly  during  the  long  intervals  between  plowing,  it  is 
obvious  that  some  method  of  providing  better  subdrainage  is 
necessary.  This  perhaps  has  been  accomplished  in  many  in- 
stances by  the  use  of  dynamite.  The  best  results  have  been 
obtained  by  exploding  sticks  of  low-grade  dynamite  at  a  depth 
of  3^2  to  4  feet  and  at  distances  of  10  to  20  feet  apart  both 
ways.  The  effect  of  the  dynamite  is  to  form  cracks  and  crev- 


TROPICAL  SOILS  21 

ices  extending  downward  and  in  all  directions  so  as  practically 
to  meet  the  crevices  formed  by  neighboring  explosions. 

On  account  of  the  fact  that  most  tropical  crops  are  allowed 
to  remain  in  the  soil  for  five  years  or  more  the  soil  is  evi- 
dently subjected  to  a  slow  packing  process  which  interferes 
with  aeration  and  consequently  with  nitrification.  In  almost 
any  sample  of  laterite  soil  which  has  not  been  disturbed  for 
a  year,  nitric  nitrogen  occurs  only  as  a  mere  trace,  while  the 
total  nitrogen  may  indicate  a  fertile  soil.  By  thorough  tillage 
and  furnishing  proper  drainage  conditions,  aeration  may  be 
set  into  active  operation,  thus  providing  the  proper  conditions 
for  the  rapid  growth  of  all  plants  which  require  nitrogen  in 
the  nitrate  form. 

In  the  growth  of  sugar  cane,  the  usual  system  of  taking  one 
plant  crop  and  two  rattoon  crops  requires  from  4^2  to  5  years. 
In  order  to  prepare  the  soil  as  thoroughly  as  possible  for  this 
long  period  of  plant  growth,  deep  plowing  has  been  adopted. 
This  is  accomplished  either  by  traction  engine,  by  ox  and 
mule  teams,  or  still  better  by  stationary  engines  and  cable.  By 
the  latter  means,  it  is  possible  to  plow  from  16  inches  to  3  feet 
in  depth.  Obviously,  the  greater  the  depth  of  soil  thus  stirred 
up  and  pulverized,  the  longer  the  time  required  for  it  to  be- 
come packed  and  impervious  again.  When  plowed  by  steam 
plows  to  a  depth  of  two  feet  or  more,  laterite  soils  are  thrown 
up  largely  in  huge  lumps  which  require  exposure  to  the  sun 
and  water  for  slacking  into  a  granular  form. 

In  some  of  the  sugar-growing  countries,  notably  in  Hawaii, 
it  was  long  maintained  by  the  sugar  planters  that  no  attention 
need  be  paid  to  cover  crops  or  humus.  It  was  assumed  that 
the  soils  were  inexhaustible  and  that  efforts  put  forth  to  restor- 
ing humus  were  merely  lost  and  useless.  During  a  consider- 
able series  of  years,  the  sugar  cane  was  harvested  by  setting 
fires  in  the  fields  at  the  time  of  maturity.  These  fires  went 
raging  through  the  field  like  a  forest  fire,  destroying  everything 
except  the  green  stalks  of  cane.  These  were  immediately  har- 


22  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

vested  and  ground.  This  system  of  burning  the  cane  resulted,  of 
course,  in  the  total  destruction  of  the  leaves  and  other  trash 
which  would  otherwise  have  been  returned  to  the  soil.  The 
folly  of  this  tremendous  waste  of  vegetable  substance  has  at 
last  been  realized,  and  the  cane  tops  and  leaves  are  returned 
to  the  soil,  supplemented  with  green  manuring  crops  which 
are  planted  immediately  after  the  second  rattoon  crop  is  re- 
moved. The  same  change  of  habit  has  occurred  among  the 
pineapple  growers,  who  found  that  a  good  tilth  of  laterite  soils 
cannot  be  maintained  without  giving  strict  attention  to  the 
humus  content  of  the  soils. 

In  Hawaii,  an  excellent  opportunity  was  offered  for  the 
study  of  the  leaching  and  weathering  processes  which  natu- 
rally occur  in  the  lava  rock.  A  chemical  study  was,  therefore, 
made  of  the  life  history  of  Hawaiian  soils.  For  this  purpose, 
samples  of  lava  were  taken  from  the  historic  flows  known  to 
have  occurred  in  1910,  1907,  1883,  1868,  and  1823.  These 
flows  were  all  from  the  same  volcano.  It  appeared  from  a 
chemical  study  of  these  samples  of  lava  that  lime  is  the  element 
which  is  leached  out  to  the  greatest  extent.  This  also  gives 
an  indication  of  the  necessity  of  supplying  lime  to  these  soils 
in  order  to  balance  the  loss  from  excessive  rainfall  and  leach- 
ing. The  supply  of  suitable  lime  for  agricultural  purposes  is 
at  hand  in  the  immense  deposits  of  coral  sand  on  the  seashore. 

From  the  standpoint  of  cultivation,  many  tropical  soils  are 
exceedingly  heavy.  The  power  required,  for  example,  in  plow- 
ing soils  in  Hawaii  and  in  Poona,  India,  is  much  greater  than 
would  be  needed  in  plowing  to  the  same  depth  in  the  familiar 
soils  of  the  United  States.  Three  or  four  mules  are  required 
for  an  ordinary  mold-board  plow  turning  the  soil  to  a  depth  of 
six  inches.  The  difficulty  of  plowing  these  heavy  soils  has 
induced  most  planters  to  resort  to  power  plows.  In  very  heavy 
soils,  as  already  indicated,  the  most  satisfactory  device  is  the 
system  with  two  stationary  engines,  one  at  either  end  of  a 
long  cable  which  hauls  a  heavy,  single  mold-board  or  gang 


TROPICAL  SOILS  23 

plow  back  and  forth  across  the  field.  Outfits  of  this  sort  cost 
about  $25,000  and  are  sufficiently  strong  to  endure  the  great 
strain  required  to  turn  up  the  clod-packed,  laterite  soils. 
Traction  engines  have  been  found  rather  unsatisfactory  for 
these  heavy  soils,  although  in  some  instances  it  is  possible  to 
plow  12  inches  deep  with  a  traction  engine. 

Another  difficulty  encountered  in  plowing  laterite  soils  of 
the  Tropics  lies  in  the  fact  that  these  soils  do  not  scour  the 
plow.  Experiments  have  been  carried  on  in  modifying  the 
surface  of  plows  with  the  idea  that  they  might  be  made  to 
scour,  even  in  the  gritless  laterite  soils.  No  success,  however, 
has  ever  been  achieved  along  this  line,  either  by  modifications 
of  the  surface  of  the  plow  or  of  the  kind  of  metal  in  the  mold 
board  or  by  the  use  of  a  slat  mold  board  in  place  of  a  solid 
one.  The  only  condition  under  which  laterite  soils  will  scour 
is  the  muddy  stage  in  which  some  of  the  rice  soils  are  plowed. 
The  draft  upon  the  plow  in  soils  which  do  not  scour  is  of 
course  much  heavier  than  in  scouring  soils. 

The  investigations  which  have  thus  far  been  made  on  heavy 
tropical  soils,  particularly  laterite  soils,  have  shown  clearly 
that  the  mechanical  condition  of  soils  is  of  prime  importance 
in  their  use  for  agricultural  purposes.  Most  of  these  soils 
contain  plant  food  in  abundance,  but  when  the  soils  become 
thoroughly  packed  and  impervious  to  air  and  water  the 
chemical  compounds  in  soil  become  less  soluble  or  fixed  in  com- 
binations from  which  plants  cannot  take  sustenance.  The  thor- 
ough aeration  of  these  heavy  soils  not  only  brings  about  the 
rapid  nitrification  of  the  organic  nitrogen  and  ammonia,  but 
renders  all  chemical  compounds  more  soluble  and  increases 
the  rate  of  movement  of  soil  moisture.  Under  proper  tillage 
it  has  been  found  that  fertilizers  applied  to  the  soils  are  much 
more  beneficial  than  when  applied  to  improperly  tilled  soils. 
If  the  laterite  soils  are  allowed  to  become  thoroughly  packed, 
it  has  been  found  that  fertilizers  are  fixed  by  these  soils 
beyond  the  power  of  plants  to  take  them  up. 


CHAPTER  III 

AGRICULTURAL   METHODS   PECULIAR  TO  THE  TROPICS 

THE  climatic  and  cropping  conditions  which  prevail  in  tropi- 
cal countries  make  necessary  certain  characteristic  practices 
which  are  more  or  less  different  from  the  farm  practices  of 
temperate  climates.  A  large  variety  of  crops  need  shade  while 
young  and  provision  is  made  for  satisfactory  shade  in  various 
ways,  sometimes  by  the  use  of  muslin,  palm  leaves,  or  slats, 
and  frequently  by  the  use  of  trees  or  shrubs  planted  with  the 
crop.  In  the  case  of  nursery  beds  for  young  seedlings  of  cof- 
fee, tea,  cacao,  etc.,  shade  is  almost  always  provided  until  the 
seedlings  are  nearly  ready  to  transplant.  They  may  then  be 
held  for  a  short  time  in  a  slightly  shaded  locality  in  order  to 
season  them  to  some  extent  for  standing  in  the  full  glare  of 
the  tropical  sun.  With  slow  growing  tree  crops  like  those 
just  mentioned  the  practice  prevails  in  some  localities  of  inter- 
planting  with  some  rapid  growing  plant  which  will  over-top 
the  young  trees  and  furnish  a  certain  amount  of  shade  for 
the  first  year  or  two  of  growth.  Among  the  plants  which  have 
been  used  for  shading  crops  in  the  Tropics  we  may  mention 
bananas,  castor  bean,  Ceara  rubber,  silky  oak  (Grevillea  ro- 
busta),  and  a  great  variety  of  leguminous  trees,  including 
dadap,  madre  de  cacao,  and  several  species  of  Albizzia  and  of 
Inga.  Quite  spirited  controversies  have  been  carried  on  re- 
garding the  need  of  permanent  shade  for  coffee,  cacao,  and 
certain  other  tropical  crops,  but  the  practice  in  this  regard  is 
by  no  means  uniform  in  tropical  countries.  Some  growers 
use  no  shade  for  coffee  or  cacao  except  in  the  nursery  beds  dur- 
ing the  early  growth  of  the  young  trees.  Other  growers  claim 

24 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURAL  METHODS        25 

to  have  best  results  from  permanent  partial  shade  furnished  by 
ceara  rubber  or  other  shade  trees  in  the  plantations. 

In  exposed  localities  windbreaks  seem  to  be  perhaps  more 
urgently  needed  in  the  Tropics  than  in  temperate  climates. 
Tropical  plants  are  extremely  sensitive  to  change  of  tempera- 
ture, especially  to  relatively  low  temperature.  The  constant 
blowing  of  the  dry  trade  wind  causes  rapid  transpiration  of 
plants  and  a  consequent  lowering  of  the  temperature  of  the 
plants.  Rows  of  trees  planted  for  the  purpose  of  furnishing 
windbreaks  are  therefore  of  great  benefit  when  running  at 
intervals  of  100  to  200  yards  across  the  fields  at  right  angles 
to  the  prevailing  wind.  In  fields  thus  furnished  with  wind- 
breaks many  tropical  crops  show  a  regular  gradation  in  size 
from  the  lee  side  of  each  row  of  windbreak  trees  to  the  wind- 
ward side  of  the  next  row  of  trees.  Some  crops  in  the  most 
exposed  situation  do  not  attain  a  size  greater  than  half  that 
of  the  plants  in  the  lee  of  an  effective  windbreak. 

The  choice  of  a  plant  for  windbreak  purposes  depends  some- 
what on  the  nature  of  the  crop  to  be  protected  and  the  strength 
of  the  winds.  For  low  growing  plants,  pigeon  pea  furnishes 
an  excellent  protection  against  the  wind.  This  may  be  grown 
in  dense  rows  and  pruned  back  annually  so  as  to  form  a  close 
hedge  somewhat  resembling  the  privet  hedge  in  appearance. 
The  pigeon  pea  is  a  perennial  and  may  best  be  used  as  a  wind- 
break in  gardens  and  for  the  protection  of  truck  crops  under 
field  conditions.  The  castor  bean  grows  rapidly  and  is  an 
excellent  plant  for  withstanding  fierce  and  continuous  winds 
in  exposed  localities.  It  will  continue  to  grow  rather  rapidly 
even  when  the  winds  are  so  strong  as  to  prevent  the  develop- 
ment of  a  symmetrical  bush. 

In  exposed  localities  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the 
seashore,  the  Majagua  or  hau  (Hibiscus  tiliaceus)  is  an  excel- 
lent shrub  for  use  as  a  windbreak.  It  will  thrive  with  its  feet 
in  salt  water  and  is  not  destroyed  by  salt  spray,  the  foliage 
being  promptly  restored  after  burning  by  the  salt  water.  The 


26  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

ironwood  or  Australian  pine  (Casuarina  equisetifolia)  does 
excellent  service  as  a  windbreak  in  almost  any  situation.  It 
will  thrive  in  brackish  or  actual  salt  water  at  sea  level,  grows 
well  where  the  rainfall  is  relatively  heavy,  and  is  also  ex- 
tremely drought  resistant.  After  becoming  well  established, 
it  will  readily  withstand  droughts  in  which  all  species  of  euca- 
lyptus die  out.  Where  there  is  a  reasonable  amount  of  rain- 
fall, eucalyptus  is  an  excellent  tree  for  use  as  a  windbreak. 
Perhaps  Eucalyptus  robusta  is  the  most  satisfactory  for  this 
purpose.  It  may  be  planted  in  three  rows  of  trees  alternating 
in  position  so  as  to  make  a  dense  windbreak  zone.  Under 
favorable  conditions  they  may  be  expected  to  reach  a  height  of 
15  to  20  feet  in  two  years. 

The  number  of  trees  used  for  windbreaks  is  legion  and  in 
different  tropical  countries  the  choice  of  planters  for  wind- 
break trees  naturally  varies  according  to  their  experience  in 
their  own  locality.  In  all  tropical  countries  lying  within  the 
trade-wind  belt  it  is  well  to  plant  rows  of  trees  adapted  for 
windbreaks  at  suitable  intervals  across  the  fields  of  arable  land. 
Windbreaks  are  useful  and  almost  necessary  in  the  case  of  the 
more  tender  and  sensitive  tropical  plants,  but  of  course  are  not 
required  on  plantations  of  sugar  cane  and  pineapples. 

On  account  of  the  fact  that  weeds  grow  the  year  round  in 
tropical  countries,  certain  special  methods  of  weeding  have 
been  adopted  in  order  to  reduce  the  expense  of  the  constant 
cultivation  for  the  destruction  of  weeds.  In  the  case  of  many 
tropical  crops,  such  as  sugar  cane,  coffee,  bananas,  etc.,  the  crop 
itself  even  before  it  reaches  full  size  so  completely  shades  the 
ground  as  to  destroy  most  of  the  weeds  between  the  rows. 
During  the  early  growth  of  these  crops,  however,  attention 
must  be  given  to  the  destruction  of  the  weeds.  In  some  cases 
the  use  of  leguminous  cover  crops  has  given  excellent  and 
economic  results  in  weed  destruction.  In  Hawaii,  Crotalaria 
has  been  used  for  this  purpose  with  good  results.  The  cover 
crop  must  be  a  quick  and  vigorous  grower  in  order  to  rise  above 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURAL  METHODS       27 

the  weeds  and  kill  them  out  by  shading,  after  which  the  cover 
crop  itself  may  be  plowed  under  or  cultivated  into  the  soil  in 
order  to  improve  the  physical  condition  of  the  soil. 

In  localities  of  excessively  high  rainfall  it  often  happens 
that  the  rain  occurs  daily  and  almost  continuously  for  periods 
of  several  months.  Under  such  conditions  it  is  impossible 
to  destroy  weeds  by  cultivation,  and  cultivation,  moreover,  in- 
jures the  texture  of  the  soil  when  it  is  in  a  muddy  condition. 
In  Hawaii  the  use  of  a  spray  of  arsenite  of  soda  has  found 
great  favor  as  a  weed  destroyer  under  such  circumstances. 
It  has  been  used  for  this  purpose  for  six  years  or  more  on 
thousands  of  acres  of  land  devoted  to  rubber  ranching,  sugar 
cane,  and  pineapples,  and  in  all  cases  with  satisfactory  results. 
The  spray  is  prepared  by  boiling  two  pounds  of  sal  soda  and 
one  pound  of  arsenic  in  a  gallon  of  water  until  the  mixture  is 
clear.  The  mixture  is  then  diluted  to  make  from  20  to  24  gal- 
lons of  spraying  material.  If  desired,  seven  ounces  of  caustic 
soda  may  be  used  in  the  place  of  two  pounds  of  sal  soda.  For 
the  successful  application  of  this  spray  it  is  merely  necessary 
to  have  a  few  hours  of  weather  without  rain.  The  spray  is 
applied  to  the  green  growing  parts  of  the  weeds  and  produces 
the  effect  of  prompt  burning  of  the  foliage  and  tender  stems. 
Special  machinery  has  been  devised  which  prevents  the  spray 
from  coming  in  contact  with  sugar  cane,  pineapples,  or  other 
crops.  The  cost  of  application  even  on  rough  land  has  been 
found  to  be  about  $1.25  an  acre.  Arsenite  of  soda  destroys 
all  ordinary  herbaceous  weeds  and  has  also  been  found  to  kill 
wild  raspberries,  Lantana,  and  various  other  weedy  shrubs. 

Insects,  like  weeds,  are  busy  the  year  round  in  tropical  coun- 
tries. The  cost  of  making  frequent  applications  of  insecticides 
month  after  month  and  the  impossibility  of  applying  insecti- 
cides under  any  circumstances  to  sugar  cane  and  certain  other 
tropical  crops  have  necessitated  the  adoption  of  other  methods 
than  artificial  insecticides  for  the  control  of  injurious  insects. 
One  method  which  has  perhaps  come  most  prominently  to  pub- 


28  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

lie  attention  consists  in  the  artificial  propagation  and  distribu- 
tion of  insect  parasites.  Perhaps  the  best  results  with  insect 
parasites  have  been  obtained  in  Hawaii,  where  by  this  means 
complete  control  was  secured  over  the  sugar-cane  leaf-hopper 
and  the  sugar-cane  borer.  Recently,  moreover,  the  insect  para- 
sites imported  for  the  control  of  the  Mediterranean  fruit  fly 
appear  to  be  giving  promise  of  efficient  help. 

Similarly  with  plant  diseases,  the  favorable  conditions  for 
fungous  and  bacterial  growth  furnished  by  continuous  warm 
weather  and  moist  atmosphere  make  these  enemies  of  crop 
production  more  serious  at  times  perhaps  than  is  ever  the  case 
in  temperate  climates.  Certain  notorious  diseases  of  plants 
have  made  the  cultivation  of  certain  crops  impossible  in  some 
localities.  Thus,  we  have  the  well  known  case  of  the  coffee 
leaf  blight  Hemileia  vastatrix  which  totally  destroyed  the 
coffee  industry  of  Ceylon  and  parts  of  India,  forcing  the  coffee 
growers  into  the  production  of  tea.  In  parts  of  Central  Amer- 
ica and  the  north  coast  of  South  America,  the  Panama  disease 
of  bananas  has  caused  such  ravages  among  susceptible  varie- 
ties of  bananas  in  certain  localities  that  the  industry  had  to 
be  abandoned.  In  a  few  instances,  resort  was  had  to  the 
Chinese  banana,  which  is  not  susceptible  to  the  disease.  Not- 
withstanding the  great  economic  disturbances  caused  by  the 
prevalence  of  such  diseases,  the  abandonment  of  one  crop 
and  adaptation  of  another  crop  were  accomplished  without 
staggering  financial  loss  and  in  the  end  to  the  benefit  of  the 
planters  concerned.  On  the  whole,  insect  pests  and  plant 
diseases  are  no  more  serious  obstacles  to  agricultural  produc- 
tion and  development  in  the  Tropics  than  in  the  temperate 
climate. 


CHAPTER   IV 
IMPORTANCE   OF   TROPICAL    PRODUCTS    IN    COMMERCE 

THE  importance  of  tropical  agricultural  products  is  often 
little  realized  even  by  persons  who  use  or  consume  these  prod- 
ucts daily.  This  is  perhaps  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  aside 
from  fruits  the  products  come  to  the  consumer  as  finished 
manufactured  articles  and  bring  with  them  no  hint  of  their 
tropical  origin.  There  is  nothing,  for  example,  suggestive 
of  the  Tropics  in  rubber  bands,  chewing  gum,  gunny  bags, 
binding  twine  for  harvesters,  and  chocolate  candy.  Neverthe- 
less, the  essential  constituents  of  all  of  these  products  come 
exclusively  from  tropical  countries.  There  are  a  few  tropical 
products  which  have  recently  assumed  much  commercial  im- 
portance, particularly  in  the  United  States.  It  is  reported, 
for  example,  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  country  spend  more 
than  $10,000,000  annually  on  chewing  gum,  the  basis  for  which 
is  chicle,  a  strictly  tropical  product. 

With  tropical  fruits  the  case  is  somewhat  different.  The 
most  casual  observer  recognizes  at  once  the  foreign  and  tropi- 
cal character  of  the  avocado,  papaya,  mango,  mangosteen,  cus- 
tard apple,  and  various  other  tropical  fruits  which  occasionally 
find  their  way  to  the  markets  of  colder  climates.  All  the 
world  has  become  familiar  with  citrus  fruit,  bananas,  and 
pineapples.  The  other  tropical  fruits  are  less  familiar  to  the 
inhabitants  of  cold  climates  and  their  ultimate  commercial  im- 
portance in  cold  climates  is  still  somewhat  uncertain.  Avo- 
cados are  generally'  relished  even  upon  first  acquaintance. 
This  is  not  always  true,  however,  and  many  persons  fail  to 
acquire  a  liking  for  them  even  after  long  acquaintance.  Simi- 

29 


30  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

larly  with  papayas,  they  are  considered  by  different  individuals 
as  fit  for  the  gods,  or  fit  for  pigs,  according  to  individual  taste. 
Mangos  offer  another  illustration  of  this  point.  Some  of 
them  taste  so  strongly  of  turpentine  and  contain  so  much  fiber 
that  they  can  hardly  be  considered  more  than  a  mere  unpleasant 
curiosity.  Other  varieties,  however,  have  extreme  delicacy  of 
flavor  and  the  prospect  of  a  commercial  market  for  them  is 
probably  greater  than  for  avocado  or  perhaps  for  any  tropical 
fruit  aside  from  citrus,  bananas,  and  pineapples. 

One  of  the  possible  reasons,  however,  for  the  slow  progress 
which  many  tropical  fruits  have  made  in  cold  climate  markets 
is  that  there  are  no  commercial  orchards  of  these  fruits  in  ex- 
istence. Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  mangos,  avocados, 
papayas,  carambolas,  custard  apples,  mangosteen,  guava,  and 
many  other  strictly  tropical  fruits  have  been  cultivated 
throughout  the  Tropics  for  hundreds,  and  some  of  them  for 
thousands,  of  years,  there  are  still  no  commercial  orchards  of 
these  fruits.  In  every  dooryard  in  tropical  countries  one  finds 
one  or  two  trees  of  nearly  all  of  these  fruits  and  the  house- 
holder is  therefore  supplied  with  the  quantity  which  he  may 
need.  On  this  account  no  occasion  has  arisen  until  recently 
for  engaging  in  the  production  of  these  fruits  on  a  commer- 
cial scale.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  perhaps  the  largest  avocado 
orchards  in  the  world  are  at  present  located  in  Florida,  al- 
though the  industry  has  only  recently  been  taken  up  in  that 
locality.  When  a  greater  variety  of  tropical  fruits  is  raised  in 
commercial  orchards  in  tropical  countries,  it  may  be  possible 
that  more  of  them  will  become  familiar  to  the  inhabitants  of 
cold  climates  and  that  a  demand  of  commercial  importance 
will  arise  for  these  fruits.  Experiments  recently  conducted 
at  the  Hawaii  Experiment  Station  showed  that  most  tropical 
fruits  could  readily  be  held  in  cold  storage  for  one  to  three 
months.  It  will  therefore  be  possible,  if  the  demand  arises, 
to  supply  the  tropical  fruits  to  the  markets  of  colder  climates 
by  means  of  refrigeration  on  steamship  and  freight  car. 


TROPICAL  PRODUCTS  IN  COMMERCE         31 

It  is  unlikely,  however,  that  any  large  proportion  of  these 
fruits  will  ever  assume  the  importance  now  held  by  apples, 
pears,  and  peaches  as  well  as  by  citrus,  bananas,  and  pineap- 
ples for  the  reason  that  few  persons  care  for  tropical  fruits 
a&  a  regular  daily  diet.  Many  of  them  have  a  peculiar  delicacy 
which  seems  very  agreeable,  but  one  is  often  astonished  to  find 
that  he  does  not  care  for  another  fruit  of  the  same  sort  for 
several  days.  Although  the  praises  of  the  mangosteen,  for 
example,  have  been  sung  by  many  travelers,  the  majority  of 
dwellers  in  the  temperate  climate  would  prefer  the  apple 
to  the  mangosteen  as  a  regular  part  of  the  daily  fare. 
Many  of  the  less  common  tropical  fruits  are  insipid  or  gen- 
erally lacking  in  flavor,  so  that  a  mere  taste  is  all  that  one 
cares  for.  As  oddities,  such  fruits  may  always  find  a  small 
sale,  but  as  commercial  fresh  fruits,  the  Tropics  appear  to 
offer  at  present  only  citrus,  bananas,  pineapples,  mangos, 
avocados,  and  possibly  papaya,  passion  fruit,  and  custard 
apple. 

The  commercial  future  of  tropical  agricultural  products 
other  than  fruits  rests,  however,  on  a  somewhat  different  basis. 
The  world's  demand  for  oils,  fibers,  rubber,  gums,  tanning  ma- 
terials, beverages,  coconuts,  and  sugar  is  thoroughly  estab- 
lished and  is  increasing  every  day.  In  1914,  the  United  States 
imported  tropical  agricultural  products  to  the  value  of  $600,- 
000,000,  the  total  imports  of  all  sorts  for  the  same  year  being 
$1,789,000,000.  Some  idea  of  the  importance  of  tropical  agri- 
cultural production  may  be  gained  from  the  following  figures, 
showing  exports  from  certain  tropical  countries  in  1914: 
India,  $500,000,000;  Ceylon,  $49,000,000;  Indo-China,  $52,- 
000,000;  Brazil,  $343,000,000;  Gold  Coast,  $9,900,000;  Dutch 
East  Indies,  $436,000,000;  Jamaica,  $13,500,000;  Ivory  Coast, 
$3,500,000;  Cuba,  $164,800,000;  Philippine  Islands,  $51,000,- 
ooo ;  Hawaii,  $41,500,000;  Porto  Rico,  $43,000,000;  and  Egypt, 
$158,300,000. 

The  amount  of  tropical  products  imported  by  the  United 


32  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

States  is  shown  in  somewhat  more  detail  in  the  following 
table: 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURAL  IMPORTS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  DURING 
THE  FOUR  YEARS  ENDING  JUNE  30,  1914. 


1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

Silk  Gbs.)  

26,666,091 

26,584,962 

32,101,555 

25  650  383 

Ostrich  feathers  (value)  .  . 

$3,806,696 

$6  252  298 

$^  94.4.  O28 

Buffalo  hides  Gbs.)  

3,425,307 

4,906,362 

16,234,751 

13  042  828 

Kangaroo  hides  (Ibs.)  

1,097,038 

I  007  562 

Cocoa  and  chocolate  Gbs.).  . 
Coffee  Gbs  )           

140,970,877 
875,366,797 

148,785,346 
885,201,247 

143,509.852 
863,130,757 

180,548,794 
1,114  *95  777 

Curry  (value)  

$11,333 

$IO,44I 

$11,191 

Ixtle  or  Tampico  fiber  (tons) 
Jute  (tons) 

6,874 
65  238 

9,835 
IOI  OOI 

9,573 
125  389 

12,727 

Kapok  (tons)           

2,070 

2,099 

2,842 

2  349 

74  308 

68  536 

73  823 

New  Zealand  flax  (tons)  .  .  . 
Sisal  (tons) 

2,679 
117  727 

5,364 
114  467 

7,827 
153  869 

4,828 

Cinchona  bark  (Ibs.)  

3,826,048 

2,891,823 
39  571 

3,553,239 
37  027 

3,944,509 
40  862 

Camphor  Gbs.) 

4,204,741 

2,398,941 

4,200,520 

3  488  271 

Chicfe  Gbs.)..'.  

6,508,208 

7,782,005 

13,758,592 

5,896,556 

Copal,  kauri,  and  dammar 
Gbs) 

23  O2I  822 

25  115  739 

28  573  201 

28  647  148 

Gambier  or  terra  Japonica 
Gbs) 

18  764  507 

21  OO2  795 

17  064  998 

Balata  (Ibs.)  ....    ,  

878,305 

1,517,066 

1,318,598 

2  OI5  158 

19  749  522 

14  238  625 

10  218  191 

Gutta    Joolatong    or    East 

51  420  872 

48  795  268 

4S  ^4?  ^8 

18  663  898 

Gutta  percha  (Ibs.)  

1,648,921 

1,204,406 

480  853 

I  923  138 

Rubber  (Ibs  )                

72  046  260 

no  210  173 

oo  170  316 

Mangrove  bark  (tons)  

21,779 

15,187 

5  568 

Rattan  (value).             .... 

$925  269 

$898552 

$1  O4O  121 

$958  418 

Bananas  (bunches)  

44,699,222 

44,520,539 

42,357,109 

48  683  592 

Dates  (Ibs  )                  .... 

29  504  592 

25  208  248 

18  145  341 

25  786  468 

Figs  (Ibs.)  

23,459,728 

18,765,408 

16,837,819 

20  506  563 

Lemons  (Ibs  )                .... 

134  968  924 

145  639  396 

151  416  412 

Olives  (gals.)    

3,044,947 

5,076,857 

3,946,076 

5  743  130 

Ginger,  preserved  (Ibs.)  .... 

350,177 

468,329 

551,320 

Coconuts,  unshelled  (value) 
Coconut  meat  or  copra  Gbs.) 
Coconut  oil  Gbs.)  
Chinese  nut  oil  (gals.)      .  .  . 

$1,704,105 
37,817,051 
51,118,317 

$1,949,406 
69,912,496 
46,370,732 
4,767  596 

$1,781,377 
40,870,367 
50,504,192 

5,996  666 

.$1,805,909 
60,076,664 
58,012,425 
•  4  018  254 

Palm  oil  Gbs  ) 

57  IOO  406 

47  159  238 

50  228  706 

Olive  oil  (gals.)    

4,405,827 

4,836,515 

5,221,001 

6  780  936 

Lemon  oil  (Ibs  ) 

430  458 

357  174 

381  093 

4.86  ^71 

Rice  Gbs.)          

208,774,795 

190,063,331 

222,103,547 

255  064,251 

Castor  beans  (bushels)  
Cassia  vera  Gbs.)  

745,035 

957.986 
6,795,943 

887,747 
6,853,915 

928,3*2 

6,261,851 

Ginger  root,  not  preserved 

5,979,314 

7,756,090 

3,528,142 

Pepper  Gbs  ) 

22  065  O74 

25  802  252 

27  562  361 

25  297  726 

Sugar  Gbs.)  

3,937,978  265 

4,104,618,393 

4,740,041,488 

5,417,995,129 

Tea  (Ibs)   .....    ... 

IO2  653  942 

IOI  406  816 

94,812,800 

97  809  571 

Tobacco  Gbs.)  

48,203,288 

54,740,380 

67,133,063 

57,406,522 

Vanilla  beans  (Ibs.)  

1,140,650 

841,628 

1,049,497 

835,271 

Among  the  largest  items  of  imports  in  the  United  States 
in  1914  were  cane  sugar,  coffee,  and  silk,  the  aggregate  value 
of  these  three  imported  products  being  $354,000,000.  Other 


TROPICAL  PRODUCTS  IN  COMMERCE        53 

items,  as  will  be  noticed  in  the  above  table,  vary  in  amount 
imported  from  year  to  year  according  to  the  changes  which 
occur  in  the  extension  of  manufacturing  of  various  products. 
Some  articles  imported  from  the  Tropics  appear  to  have 
reached  their  maximum,  at  least  with  the  present  population, 
and  to  be  increasing  slowly  with  the  increase  of  population. 

The  control  and  proper  development  of  the  Tropics  is  a 
problem  of  tremendous  consequences.  Year  by  year  more 
tropical  products  become  necessities  in  cold  climates.  This  is 
apparent  from  the  mere  casual  consideration  of  a  list  of  the 
commonly  imported  tropical  products,  such  as  cane  sugar, 
coconuts,  tea,  coffee,  cocoa,  bananas,  pineapples,  citrus  fruits, 
olives,  dates,  figs,  sisal,  Manila  hemp,  jute,  kapok,  raffia,  rub- 
ber, balata,  gutta-percha,  chicle  and  other  gums,  cinchona,  tans 
and  dyes,  rice,  sago,  cassava,  cinnamon,  pepper,  cloves,  nut- 
meg, vanilla,  and  other  spices,  oils,  such  as  palm,  China  wood, 
candlenut,  castor,  olive,  cotton,  lemon  oil,  etc.  How  many  pub- 
lic men  in  the  United  States  are  really  giving  attention  to  the 
tropical  question?  Some  energy  has  been  expended  in  the 
introduction  and  popularization  of  tropical  fruits  in  order  to 
make  our  citizens  familiar  with  these  products  and  in  order 
to  learn  whether  the  fruits  may  be  cultivated  in  southern  Flor- 
ida and  California.  This,  however,  cannot  solve  the  whole 
problem.  It  concerns  merely  one  phase  of  the  question,  the 
other  and  more  important  phase  being  the  production  of  the 
articles  in  question  in  tropical  countries  which  are  best  suited 
to  the  cultivation  of  such  crops. 

The  total  land  surface  of  the  earth  is  estimated  at  52,500,000 
square  miles.  Of  this  area  about  29,000,000  square  miles  is 
considered  as  fertile  land.  The  total  land  area  of  the  Tropics 
and  subtropics  is  about  15,000,000  square  miles.  In  the  Trop- 
ics it  has  been  estimated  by  Willis  that  50,000,000  acres  are 
devoted  to  the  production  of  export  crops  and  275,000,000 
acres  to  the  maintenance  of  the  inhabitants  of  tropical  coun- 
tries. This  total  of  325,000,000  acres  cultivated  in  the  Tropics 


34  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

is  about  30  per  cent,  of  the  tropical  land  area,  and  is  probably 
too  high  an  estimate.  In  the  United  States  mainland  the  total 
improved  land  equals  25  per  cent,  of  the  total  area,  being  49 
per  cent,  in  the  North,  27  per  cent,  in  the  South,  and  5  per 
cent,  in  the  West.  In  tropical  countries,  there  are  about  86,- 
300,000  acres  in  rice,  4,000,000  acres  in  sugar  cane,  3,500,000 
acres  in  coconuts,,  2,000,000  acres  in  tea,  2,000,000  acres  in 
tobacco,  3,000,000  acres  in  jute,  1,500,000  acres  in  rubber, 
3,300,000  acres  in  coffee  in  Brazil  alone,  and  40,000,000  acres 
in  millet.  In  addition  to  these  areas  devoted  to  tropical  crops 
large  areas  are  utilized  for  the  production  of  agricultural  crops 
which  are  grown  also  in  temperate  climates.  For  example, 
India  exports  260,000,000  bushels  of  wheat  annually,  and  corn 
is  a  crop  of  great  importance  in  many  strictly  tropical  countries. 
The  English  and  Dutch  and,  more  recently,  the  French  and 
Belgians  have  made  great  progress  with  their  tropical  colonies. 
This  progress  is  solidly  based  on  a  careful  consideration  of 
the  natural  resources  of  their  colonies,  the  needs,  rights,  and 
welfare  of  the  native  races  in  these  colonies,  and  the  possibili- 
ties of  commercial  development  in  response  to  the  demand  of 
modern  markets.  The  combined  trade  of  England  and  the 
United  States  with  tropical  countries  is  estimated  at  $3,000,- 
000,000  yearly.  The  Tropics  have  one-half  the  arable  land 
surface  of  the  earth  and  this  land  is  capable  of  continuous 
uninterrupted  production  the  year  round.  The  native  tropical 
races  are  capable  under  proper  treatment  and  guidance  of 
making  very  effective  farmers.  Moreover,  we  should  not  for- 
get the  opportunities  for  white  farmers  in  tropical  countries. 
Colonies  of  American  farmers  are  giving  a  good  account  of 
themselves  in  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico.  The  possession  of  the 
Philippines,  Porto  Rico,  Hawaii,  American  Samoa,  Guam,  and 
the  Panama  Canal  Zone  makes  it  necessary  for  the  United 
States  to  show  an  active  interest  in  the  tropical  problem  in 
all  its  phases. 


CHAPTER   V 

ECONOMIC    AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS    AND    OPPOR- 
TUNITIES   IN    THE   TROPICS 

WHEN  the  white  man  first  began  to  visit  tropical  countries 
for  adventure  or  discovery  or  curiosity  or  business,  he  found 
these  countries  in  the  possession  of  native  races,  mostly  brown 
and  black.  Tropical  agriculture  was  originally,  of  course,  al- 
together in  the  hands  of  these  native  races.  Until  the  organiz- 
ing and  commercial  mind  of  the  white  man  interfered  in  the 
development  of  possibilities  in  the  Tropics,  practical  agricul- 
ture was  to  a  large  extent  confined  to  the  collection  of  wild 
products  growing  naturally  in  abundance  in  the  primitive 
jungles  or  as  the  result  of  simple  methods  of  cultivation  in 
small  areas  about  native  huts. 

The  European  explorers  at  once  recognized  the  commercial 
possibilities  in  tropical  countries.  The  white  man's  attitude 
toward  the  Tropics  from  the  very  first  has  been  one  of  ex- 
ploitation. This  has  involved  the  use  of  the  native  as  a  peon 
belonging  to  an  inferior  race.  In  the  early  literature  regard- 
ing agricultural  and  commercial  possibilities  in  the  Tropics, 
it  is  usually  stated  with  refreshing  franknecs  that  the  native 
races  are  obviously  inferior  to  the  white  race  and  that  their 
supposed  rights  to  property  in  tropical  countries  must  yield 
to  the  superior  demands  of  the  white  race. 

As  rapidly  as  men  of  finance  could  be  interested  in  tropical 
development,  huge  corporations  began  to  be  formed  involving 
absentee  landlordism  in  its  purest  and  most  exaggerated  form 
with  practically  all  the  stock  owned  in  European  countries. 
It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  the  native  tropical  races  have  usually 

35 


36  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

had  no  such  idea  of  the  value  of  land  as  is  possessed  by  the 
white  race.  Most  of  these  lands  were  held  by  them  in  common 
and  if  an  individual  wished  to  move  to  another  locality  he 
readily  found  in  his  new  place  of  abode  suitable  land  for 
his  simple  wants.  It  was  in  no  instance,  therefore,  a  difficult 
matter  to  persuade  the  natives  to  sell  their  land  for  a  very 
small  mess  of  pottage,  or  to  force  them  to  sell  by  economic 
pressure.  The  white  race  assuredly  cannot  point  with  pride 
to  the  methods  which  it  has  used  in  gaining  land  in  the  Tropics. 
At  the  present  time  there  are  extremely  few,  if  any,  locali- 
ties in  the  Tropics  in  which  the  individual  settler  from  tem- 
perate climates  can  establish  himself  without  the  possession  of 
considerable  capital.  Such  a  settler  must  at  least  have  enough 
to  tide  him  over  the  first  two  or  three  years.  It  should  be  re- 
membered that  most  tropical  crops  require  three  years  or  more 
of  growth  before  they  begin  to  bring  in  returns.  The  cost  of 
clearing  land  and  preparing  it  for  cultivation  is  greater  in  tropi- 
cal countries  than  in  cold  climates  and  the  expense  of  living 
may  be  correspondingly  high.  The  labor  which  one  will  be 
forced  to  employ  in  carrying  on  large  agricultural  operations 
is  cheap  in  price  but  not  very  effective.  In  large  plantations 
the  usual  system  of  managing  labor  is  the  gang  method  in 
which  a  group  of  laborers  are  worked  together  under  a  field 
boss.  Various  devices  have  been  used  in  different  tropical 
countries  to  improve  the  effectiveness  of  labor  and  especially  to 
attach  the  laborer  more  permanently  to  the  land.  For  this 
purpose  cheap  shacks  are  built  for  the  laborers,  these  shacks 
being  arranged  in  groups  so  as  to  constitute  labor  camps 
located  conveniently  to  the  fields  in  which  the  laborer  will  be 
required  to  work.  The  laborer  is  usually  furnished  free  fuel 
and  medical  attendance.  In  many  cases  a  so-called  homestead- 
ing  system  has  been  adopted  by  which  the  laborer  is  given  from 
one  to  six  acres  of  land  as  a  small  farm  upon  which  he  may 
raise  fruit  products.  For  the  most  part,  however,  these  small 
homesteads  have  not  been  designed  as  real  homesteads  but 


ECONOMIC  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS         37 

merely  as  a  bait  to  hold  the  laborer  permanently  attached  to  the 
plantation. 

On  most  of  these  small  so-called  homesteads  little  work  is 
done  except  occasionally  by  the  women  and  children.  The 
time  of  the  men  is  all  required  on  the  plantation  and  they  have 
no  leisure  nor  energy  for  work  on  their  own  little  plat  of  land. 
As  a  rule,  plantation  laborers  are  expected  to  trade  at  the 
plantation  stores.  At  such  stores  their  credit  is  good  up  to 
the  extent  of  their  wages  and  the  proverbial  improvidence  of 
the  coolie  laborer  usually  keeps  him  either  in  debt  to  the  plan- 
tation store  or  with  his  head  barely  above  the  financial  pool 
in  which  he  is  forced  to  swim.  Most  of  the  labor  employed 
on  the  large  sugar  and  other  plantations  succeeds  in  making 
a  bare  living.  Theoretically  these  laborers  are  free,  but  eco- 
nomically they  are  slaves. 

The  white  man  can  work  in  the  Tropics  and  it  is  better 
for  him  to  do  so.  On  account  of  the  fact  that  in  most  tropical 
countries  the  best  opportunities  have  already  been  seized  by 
large  corporations  it  is  sometimes  difficult  for  the  individual 
farmer  to  find  a  location  where  he  can  make  a  reasonable  living 
without  much  annoyance  and  trouble.  By  means  of  coopera- 
tive associations,  however,  many  of  the  difficulties  of  destitu- 
tion and  financial  embarrassment  are  overcome.  In  Porto  Rico, 
white  men  working  cooperatively  have  developed  a  $3,000,000 
fresh  fruit  industry  from  nothing  in  a  period  of  ten  years. 
Moreover,  white  colonies  of  fruit  and  truck  gardeners  are 
prospering  in  Cuba,  particularly  in  La  Gloria,  Herradurra, 
and  Isle  of  Pines.  The  fruit  raiser  or  truck  gardener  who 
requires  some  additional  labor  to  run  his  place  will  have 
choice  among  various  races.  Of  all  the  kinds  of  labor  available 
in  the  Tropics,  the  Chinese  is  probably  the  best,  being  willing, 
tractable,  and  of  unusual  skill  and  endurance. 

Social  groups  in  the  Tropics  are  prone  to  split  up  along 
racial  lines  with  the  assumption  of  inferior  and  superior  races. 
An  endless  amount  of  intermarriage  between  various  races  has 


38  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

occurred  largely  as  a  result  of  the  white  man's  interference 
in  the  development  of  the  Tropics.  Not  only  have  the  various 
.races  of  European  origin  freely  intermarried  with  other  races 
of  darker  color,  but  they  have  been  instrumental  in  bringing 
together  a  hodge-podge  of  races  in  nearly  every  tropical  coun- 
try as  a  result  of  the  constant  endeavor  to  secure  cheap  and 
abundant  labor.  Of  all  the  races  which  are  found  in  tropical 
countries,  the  Japanese  perhaps  intermarry  least  frequently. 

The  social  and  business  standing  of  half-breeds  varies 
greatly,  according  to  country  and  locality  and  according  to 
the  apparent  merits  of  the  mixed  races.  In  Hawaii,  for  ex- 
ample, the  half-whites,  born  of  white  fathers  and  Hawaiian 
mothers,  mingle  with  the  best  of  society  just  as  do  the  pure 
native  Hawaiians.  The  point  of  race  inferiority  has  never 
been  raised  by  the  white  man  in  Hawaii,  at  least  as  applied  to 
the  Hawaiian.  The  intensity  of  race  prejudice,  however,  va- 
ries greatly  with  locality  and  individual.  Even  in  a  city  like 
Honolulu,  where  nearly  all  the  human  races  and  practically 
all  possible  mixtures  of  these  races  occur,  there  is  grow- 
ing intensity  of  race  feeling  which  in  all  probability  will  ulti- 
mately lead  to  a  decided  diminution  in  race  mixtures  and  to 
a  reestablishment  of  purer  races.  While  it  was  once  thought 
to  be  of  no  consequence  whatever  that  an  Anglo-Saxon  in 
Hawaii  should  marry  a  pure  Hawaiian,  there  is  a  growing  feel- 
ing that  an  individual  with  pure  ancestry  running  back  for  a 
thousand  years  or  more  should  have  too  much  race  pride  to 
allow  his  family  tree  to  terminate  in  a  nondescript  twig  of  the 
half-breed  type. 

The  opportunities  offered  in  the  Tropics  to  the  intending 
settler  from  colder  climates  depend  on  many  factors,  such 
as  physical  acclimatability  of  the  settler,  the  amount  of  his 
capital,  his  special  training,  and,  above  all,  his  grit  and  com- 
mon sense.  The  white  laborer  will  find  little  opportunity  in 
..-'tropical  countries  for,  in  the  field  of  labor,  either  skilled  or 
unskilled,  he  will  have  to  compete  with  the  ubiquitous  Oriental 


ECONOMIC  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS         39 

or  some  other  race  of  a  low  standard  of  living.  The  best  op- 
portunity which  the  Tropics  offer  is  farming  in  cooperative 
communities  favorably  located  as  regards  markets.  Residents 
of  the  Tropics  are  often  consulted  for  advice  regarding  the 
stock-selling  companies  dealing  with  agricultural  products. 
There  seems  to  be  only  one  answer  that  can  be  made  to  such 
inquiries  and  that  is,  in  general,  do  not  buy  stock  blindly  in 
tropical  agricultural  companies.  The  frauds  and  failures  of 
rubber  companies  in  Mexico  and  elsewhere  have  not  only 
brought  financial  ruin  to  hundreds  of  individuals  but  have 
greatly  injured  the  development  of  legitimate  enterprises  of 
this  sort.  Companies  which  pretend  to  be  developing  rubber 
and  fiber  industries  in  newly  opened  tracts  of  tropical  land  may 
well  be  carefully  investigated  before  any  stock  is  purchased. 
Hell  is  paved  with  prospectuses  of  fiber  and  rubber  com- 
panies, some  of  which  have  never  actually  developed  an  acre 
of  land  upon  which  they  have  pretended  to  hold  option. 

The  Tropics  offer  rather  abundant  and  brilliant  opportuni- 
ties for  trained  men  from  various  lines.  The  Tropics  need 
trained  chemists,  agronomists,  horticulturists,  entomologists, 
pathologists,  and  veterinarians.  For  the  substantial  develop- 
ment of  tropical  agriculture  there  is  great  need  of  white  set- 
tlers like  the  type  of  men  who  settled  our  West,  but  with  more 
money.  There  is  need  of  colleges  of  tropical  agriculture  in 
the  Tropics.  At  present  there  can  hardly  be  said  to  exist  a 
college  of  tropical  agriculture,  and  yet  there  is  constant  call 
for  men  especially  trained  in  the  production  or  manufacturing 
processes  connected  with  various  agricultural  crops.  The 
Tropics  need  broad-minded  sociologists,  or  rather  social  work- 
ers, prepared  to  study  and  to  help  solve  the  endless  interracial 
problems.  The  Tropics  need  also  the  enlightened  interest  of 
the  genuine  statesmen  of  the  dominant  races  of  the  world.  If 
these  needs  are  all  adequately  met  the  Tropics  may  contribute 
greatly  to  the  necessities  and  luxuries  of  the  world  and  may 
not  become  the  battlefield  of  armed  greed. 


40  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

The  accounts  of  profits  from  tropical  agriculture  are  often 
greatly  exaggerated  and  are  usually  stated  on  a  misleading 
basis.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  the  profits  of  tropical 
agricultural  corporations  are  profits  on  cheap  labor,  not  profits 
from  agriculture.  A  corporation  with  2,000  laborers  receiv- 
ing 50  cents  a  day  but  really  earning  $i  a  day  makes  a  clear 
profit  of  $250,000  a  year  over  and  above  its  legitimate  agri- 
cultural profit  as  a  result  of  underpaying  the  labor.  As  al- 
ready indicated,  the  laborer  employed  on  tropical  plantations 
is  nearly  on  the  same  basis  as  the  mule,  that  is,  working  for 
his  board. 

As  an  example  of  the  agricultural  profits  from  the  tropical 
industries  we  may  take  the  economics  of  sugar  production. 
The  contract  by  which  the  small  sugar  planter  disposes  of  his 
cane  to  the  sugar  mill  in  Hawaii  varies  somewhat  according 
to  the  company.  According  to  one  scheme  the  small  planter 
receives  48  cents  of  every  dollar  obtained  for  the  raw  sugar 
in  San  Francisco  or  New  York.  In  other  words,  when  sugar 
brings  $75  a  ton  the  homesteader  or  small  planter  gets  $36  a 
ton  and  the  sugar  mill  company  gets  $39  a  ton.  The  sugar 
mill  is  at  an  expense  of  $5  per  ton  for  milling  and  $9  for 
freight  and  the  mill  profit  is,  therefore,  $25  a  ton.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  costs  the  small  planter  $4  a  ton  to  produce  his 
sugar  cane  and  it  requires  at  least  8  tons  of  cane  to  make  one 
ton  of  sugar.  The  total  cost  to  the  small  planter,  therefore, 
of  producing  a  ton  of  sugar  is  $32.  The  small  planter,  there- 
fore, makes  a  profit  of  $4  a  ton  on  his  sugar  when  the  sugar 
sells  for  $75  a  ton.  Now  an  average  yield  of  sugar  in  Hawaii 
is  about  4%  tons  per  acre  and  the  small  planter's  profit  per 
acre  is  therefore  $18  on  an  18  months'  crop,  or  $12  per  acre 
per  year.  The  average  size  of  the  sugar  cane  homestead  in 
Hawaii  is  about  10  acres.  The  homesteader's  profit  from  his 
whole  homestead  is  therefore  $120  per  year.  If,  however, 
sugar  falls  to  $60  per  ton  the  small  planter  actually  loses. 
Moreover,  many  of  the  plantations  pay  for  cane  according  to 


ECONOMIC  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS         41 

another  plan  by  which  the  small  planter  or  homesteader  re- 
ceives $4  a  ton  for  his  cane.  This  is  just  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion. In  other  words,  the  small  planter  works  18  months  to 
get  back  after  a  few  months'  additional  delay  what  he  ex- 
pended in  the  production  of  his  crop.  The  Porto  Rico  sugar 
mills,  on  the  other  hand,  pay  the  planter  60  to  75  cents  out 
of  every  dollar  received  for  the  sugar.  The  Porto  Rico  method 
allows  a  square  deal  to  the  small  planter. 

Similarly  with  pineapples,  the  actual  agricultural  profits  are 
not  large  as  compared  with  mainland  crops.  In  Hawaii,  it 
costs  from  $11  to  $14  to  produce  a  ton  of  pineapples,  the  ave"r- 
age  cost  being  perhaps  $12.  In  1914,  the  pineapple  canneries 
of  Hawaii  reduced  the  prices  which  they  offered  to  the  pine- 
apple growers  to  $5  to  $9  per  ton.  Previously  the  prices  had 
been  about  $18  per  ton.  At  the  latter  figure  there  was  a  profit 
of  about  $6  per  ton  to  the  grower.  The  average  yield  per  acre 
is  about  6  tons  of  pineapples,  giving  a  total  acre  profit  of  $36 
for  an  1 8  months'  crop,  or  $24  per  acre  per  year.  The  cost 
of  producing  bananas  may  be  set  at  about  30  cents  a  bunch. 
The  grower  receives  on  an  average  about  40  cents  a  bunch, 
which  gives  him  an  apparent  profit  of  10  cents  per  bunch. 
The  average  yield  of  bananas  is  about  230  bunches  per  acre 
per  year,  thus  yielding  a  total  acre  profit  of  $23,  but  it  is 
unnecessary  to  elaborate  statements  of  profits  in  connection 
with  other  tropical  crops.  The  figures  in  any  case  are  valid 
only  for  one  locality  and  must  be  constantly  revised  on  account 
of  the  changes  in  market  facilities,  prices  of  labor,  and  other 
factors.  There  are  no  huge  profits  from  tropical  agriculture 
for  the  small  grower.  In  fact,  his  profits  can  in  no  event  be 
larger  than  he  can  obtain  from  a  smaller  amount  of  effort  in 
cold  climates.  The  one  hope  for  the  homesteader  or  farmer  or 
small  grower  in  the  Tropics  is  in  the  formation  of  cooperative 
communities,  such  as  are  already  giving  great  promise 
in  Porto  Rico,  in  Cuba,  and  in  Hawaii.  While  it  is  evi- 
dent from  the  figures  just  given  of  profits  from  sugar  canq 


42  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

and  pineapples  that  the  small  grower  does  not  receive  any 
large  acre  profit,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  profits  of 
large  corporations  growing  cane  and  pineapples  in  Hawaii 
average  over  $75  to  $100  per  acre  per  year  as  compared  with 
the  $12  to  $20  profit  to  the  small  grower.  This  difference, 
however,  is  due  not  to  better  management  but,  as  already  in- 
dicated, to  the  underpayment  of  labor. 

In  connection  with  our  tropical  possessions  we  need  a  con- 
sistent and  definite  policy,  a  policy  scientifically  and  economi- 
cally sound,  a  policy  in  which  all  interests  will  receive  due 
consideration,  namely,  homesteaders,  laborers,  capital,  and  the 
welfare  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole.  It  is  perfectly  futile 
to  set  ephemeral  politicians  at  the  business  of  running  and 
developing  the  Tropics.  Thus  far  such  a  system  of  managing 
the  Tropics  has  merely  developed  a  feudal  system  for  the  ex- 
ploitation of  land  and  of  cheap  labor.  The  whole  problem 
presented  by  the  tropical  possessions  of  the  United  States 
should  be  in  the  hands  of  trained  men  and  should  involve  the 
cooperation  of  the  Departments  of  Agriculture,  Interior,  Com- 
merce, Labor,  War,  and  Navy.  A  definite  policy  could  then 
be  framed,  announced,  and  consistently  pushed  forward  with 
the  assurance  that  greater  and  greater  beneficial  results  would 
flow  from  it  every  year. 


CHAPTER   VI 
SUGAR   CANE 

SUGAR  CANE  is  a  tall,  rank-growing  grass,  presumably  a  na- 
tive of  India,  Malaya,  and  Cochin  China,  and  now  cultivated 
throughout  the  Tropics  and  subtropics.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  the  strictly  wild  species  from  which  the  cultivated 
varieties  of  sugar  cane  have  been  developed  has  been  pre- 
served in  any  of  its  original  habitats.  Sugar  cane  is  not  only 
an  extremely  vigorous  grass  of  rapid  growth,  but  is  of  con- 
siderable ornamental  beauty,  especially  when  in  'tassel. 

The  sugar  cane  is  generally  recognized  as  one  of  the  most 
important  commercial  crops  of  the  world.  The  world's  trade 
in  sugar  is  about  10,000,000  tons  annually,  of  which  6,000,000 
tons  are  beet  sugar  and  4,000,000  tons  cane  sugar.  India  also 
produces  about  2,500,000  tons  of  cane  sugar  annually  which 
does  not  come  into  commerce  but  is  consumed  locally.  Large 
quantities  of  sugar  are  also  consumed  in  other  sugar-produc- 
ing countries.  The  total  world  production  of  sugar  is  about 
20,885,000  tons. 

Sugar  cane  is  referred  by  botanists  to  the  species  Saccharum 
officinarum.  There  are  several  species  of  this  genus,  but  3\ 
officinarum  is  the  only  one  with  which  we  are  concerned  as  a 
commercial  sugar-producing  plant.  This  species  has  been 
divided  for  purposes  of  classification  into  the  groups  genuinum 
(pale  green  or  yellow  canes),  litt era-turn  (greenish  or  yellow- 
ish canes  with  red  stripes),  and  molaceum  (violet-colored 
canes).  These  groups  in  turn  are  divided  into  the  numerous 
varieties  of  cane  which  are  cultivated  throughout  the  tropi- 
cal countries.  The  stalk  of  sugar  cane  varies  from  3  to  25 

43 


44  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

feet  in  length  and  from  y2  to  3  inches  in  diameter.  The  length 
of  the  stem  varies  greatly  according  to  variety,  locality,  and 
length  of  time  during  which  it  is  allowed  to  grow.  The  length 
of  the  internodes  between  the  joints  commonly  varies  from 
4  to  10  inches,  depending  in  turn  primarily  on  the  rate  and 
vigor  of  growth.  The  roots  of  sugar  cane,  like  those  of  most 
other  grasses,  are  delicate  and  fibrous,  varying  in  length  from 
1 8  inches  to  10  feet  and  distributed  therefore  widely  through- 
out the  soil,  and  under  favorable  conditions  to  a  great  depth. 
Sugar  cane  has  no  tap  root.  The  leaf  sheath  of  cane  is  about 
one  foot  long  on  an  average  and  the  leaves  vary  from  two 
to  four  feet  in  length  and  two  to  three  inches  in  width.  At 
maturity,  sugar  cane  forms  long,  beautiful  silky  tassels  of 
panicled  flowers.  Seed  is  formed  rather  sparingly  but  per- 
sistent search  has  been  kept  up  for  seed  in  order  to  use  it  in 
producing  seedlings.  Millions  of  seedlings  have  been  raised, 
especially  in  Java,  Barbados,  and  Hawaii.  As  with  other 
cultivated  plants,  so  with  sugar  cane,  a  great  variation  of 
characters  has  been  thus  obtained.  Some  of  the  seedling 
varieties  which  have  been  produced  are  of  striking  promise, 
producing  not  only  a  heavy  growth  of  cane  but  an  enormous 
yield  of  sugar.  In  a  few  instances,  yields  as  high  as  16  tons  of 
sugar  per  acre  have  been  obtained  from  seedling  canes. 

In  the  sugar-producing  countries,  100  or  more  varieties  of 
sugar  cane  have  received  serious  commercial  attention.  In 
most  varieties  the  stalk  is  recumbent  at  the  base,  thus  requir- 
ing more  labor  in  harvesting.  The  stalks  are  erect,  however, 
in  the  Demerara  canes,  particularly  D.  1135,  and  in  Yel- 
low Caledonia,  Japanese  cane,  and  a  few  other  varieties.  The 
sucrose  content  of  sugar  cane  varies  from  7  to  20  per  cent, 
and  the  water  content  from  70  to  75  per  cent.  The  sugar  con- 
tent is  much  affected  by  weather  and  soil  and  is  probably  less 
a  function  of  variety,  although  it  should  be  said  that  in  Hawaii 
the  Lahaina  cane  is  always  sweeter  than  Yellow  Caledonia.  It 
will  at  once  be  seen  that  the  percentage  of  sugar  developed 


SUGAR  CANE  45 

in  sugar  cane  has  been  exceeded  in  sugar  beets  and  even  in 
some  of  the  saccharine  sorghums.  For  this  reason,  it  has  been 
felt  that  possibly  long-continued  selection  might  result  in  an 
increase  in  the  sucrose  content.  Some  increase  in  the  sugar 
content  has  been  brought  about  in  Java  by  a  process  of  chem- 
ical selection.  In  this  work  seed  sticks  were  selected  from 
canes  showing  the  highest  percentage  of  sugar.  So  far  as 
may  be  judged  by  experiments  thus  far  carried  on,  however, 
there  is  little  prospect  of  greatly  increasing  the  sugar  content 
of  cane.  The  average  sugar  content  of  Louisiana  cane  is  about 
13.5  per  cent.  The  sugar  content  diminishes  from  the  base 
to  the  tip  of  the  cane.  Since  it  is  the  common  practice  to  use 
the  upper  part  of  the  cane  for  seed  purposes,  certain  experi- 
ments have  been  carried  on  to  determine  whether  such  prac- 
tice is  calculated  gradually  to  reduce  the  percentage  of  sugar  in 
the  cane.  These  experiments  have  indicated  little,  if  any, 
advantage  from  planting  the  lower  segments  of  cane  over  the 
use  of  the  upper  segments  of  the  stalk. 

The  extreme  geographical  limits  of  cane  at  present  are  37° 
N.  in  Spain  and  37°  S.  in  New  Zealand.  The  higher  the  tem- 
perature the  faster  the  growth  and  the  longer  and  thicker  the 
internodes.  This  applies  almost  without  exception  in  all  sugar- 
producing  countries.  In  Demerara,  with  an  almost  constant 
equatorial  temperature,  only  270  days  are  required  from  plant- 
ing to  tasseling.  In  Hawaii,  on  the  other  hand,  500  days  are 
required  for  the  same  stages  of  growth.  The  length  of  time 
required  for  sugar  cane  to  reach  maturity  varies  greatly  in 
different  parts  of  Hawaii  according  to  altitude  and  the  amount 
of  rainfall  and  sunshine.  In  general,  the  variation  is  from  18 
months  to  2^2  years. 

On  account  of  the  cool  winter  weather  in  Louisiana,  cane 
must  be  harvested  in  an  immature  condition.  The  juice  is 
therefore  impure,  containing  a  high  amount  of  reducing  sugar 
and  being  relatively  low  in  sucrose.  The  same  condition,  how- 
ever, is  also  found  in  equatorial  regions  where  the  tempera- 


46  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

ture  is  always  hot  and  where  the  seasons  show  the  least  varia- 
tion. Under  the  latter  conditions  the  growth  is  constant  and 
the  cane  never  comes  to  so  complete  a  maturity  as  occurs  on 
the  borders  of  the  Tropics  where  also  the  greatest  purity  of 
cane  juice  is  obtained. 

Throughout  the  Tropics  there  is  an  almost  universal  sys- 
tem of  nomenclature  for  the  crops  of  cane  as  well  as  for  many 
other  tropical  crops.  The  first  crop  from  seed  planting  is  called 
the  plant  crop,  and  subsequent  crops  obtained  without  replant- 
ing are  called  rattoon  crops.  In  Java,  most  of  the  sugar  cane 
crop  is  plant  cane.  In  Louisiana,  the  crop  is  made  up  of  plant 
cane  and  first  rattoons.  In  Hawaii,  the  common  practice  is 
to  harvest  a  plant  crop  and  two  rattoon  crops.  In  Mauritius, 
three  rattoon  crops  are  taken,  and  in  Cuba  and  the  West  In- 
dies it  is  customary  to  continue  without  replanting  up  to  the 
fifth  rattoon  crop  or  in  certain  fields  as  long  as  25  years  or 
more.  The  number  of  crops  taken  without  replanting  is,  of 
course,  not  determined  by  theoretical  considerations  of  the 
possibility  of  the  successful  growth  of  cane  after  being  cut, 
but  strictly  for  economic  reasons.  In  some  localities  the  third 
rattoon  crop  is  so  light  and  the  yield  of  sugar  so  low  that  it 
is  more  profitable  to  plow  and  replant  than  to  allow  the  plant 
to  remain  for  the  production  of  a  third  rattoon  crop.  In  a 
few  localities  in  Hawaii,  for  reasons  which  are  not  at  all  ap- 
parent, sugar  cane  has  continued  to  yield  excellent  crops 
without  replanting  for  a  period  of  25  years.  This  would  not 
be  considered  an  unusual  performance  in  Cuba  and  the  West 
Indies. 

The  optimum  quantity  of  water  for  cane,  either  as  rainfall 
or  irrigation  water,  depends  to  a  large  extent  on  the  physics 
of  the  soil,  the  rate  of  evaporation,  and  the  farming  system 
according  to  which  the  soil  is  handled.  The  rate  of  evapora- 
tion, as  is  well  known,  varies  greatly  in  different  localities  and 
this  naturally  has  much  to  do  with  the  amount  of  water  re- 
quired for  the  growth  of  cane.  The  optimum  quantity  of 


SUGAR  CANE  47 

water  for  a  crop  of  sugar  cane  in  Louisiana  is  about  60  inches, 
in  Demerara  about  100  inches,  and  in  Hawaii  about  150  inches. 
There  are  many  known  cases  of  special  adaptability  of  variety 
to  climate;  for  example,  D.  74  Louisiana,  Lahaina  cane  on 
irrigated  lands  in  Hawaii,  and  Yellow  Caledonia  on  unirri- 
gated  plantations  and  at  higher  elevations  in  Hawaii.  It  has 
been  fairly  well  shown  that  cane  soils  should  have  a  high 
water-holding  power  and  that  on  this  account  clays,  lateritic 
soils,  and  alluvial  soils  are  perhaps  best  for  the  growth  of 
cane. 

The  use  of  fertilizers  in  the  production  of  sugar  cane  has 
received  a  great  amount  of  attention  in  all  cane-growing  coun- 
tries. In  Hawaii,  a  profit  has  been  shown  from  the  use  of 
fertilizers  even  on  soils  which  will  produce  n  tons  of  sugar 
per  acre,  and  naturally  fertilizers  give  still  more  profitable 
returns  on  poorer  soils.  In  Hawaii,  the  tendency  now  is  to 
use  more  nitrogen  and  less  potash  than  in  fosmer  years.  This 
change  in  formula  came  about  as  a  result  of  extended  experi- 
ence in  which  it  was  found  that  potash  was  not  required  to 
the  extent  which  had  previously  been  considered  necessary. 
Lime  is  used  extensively  in  cane  production.  In  Hawaii,  coral 
sand  is  much  used  for  that  purpose.  It  has  generally  been 
found  that  nitrogen  should  be  applied  early  in  the  growth 
of  the  cane.  Nitrate  of  soda  may  easily  be  applied  in  solution 
in  the  irrigation  water.  This  practice  is  followed  on  a  number 
of  Hawaiian  plantations.  No  specific  effect  has  ever  been 
shown  of  fertilizers  on  the  composition  of  cane  juice.  The 
mud  press  cake  is  usually  returned  to  the  soil  and  on  some 
of  the  Hawaiian  plantations  all  the  molasses  from  the  mills 
is  returned  to  the  soil  as  fertilizer.  Sugar  cane  causes  little 
soil  exhaustion  if  all  trash  is  returned  to  the  soil.  In  Hawaii 
and  in  many  of  the  cane-growing  countries,  the  practice  was 
adopted  years  ago  of  burning  all  cane  leaves  and  tops  left  in 
the  field  after  harvesting.  In  recent  years,  this  tendency  was- 
further  extended  in  Hawaii  where  the  cane  fields  were  burned 


48  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

off  before  harvesting,  thus  destroying  all  material  which  would 
otherwise  have  been  returned  to  the  soil  and  leaving  nothing 
but  the  bare  stems  standing.  This  practice  was  adopted  on 
account  of  the  supposed  reduction  which  is  brought  about  in 
the  cost  of  harvesting.  With  the  exception  of  two  or  three 
plantations  no  effort  was  made  at  all  within  recent  years  on 
any  of  the  Hawaiian  plantations  to  conserve  the  humus  of 
the  soil,  to  practice  green  manuring  in  any  way  or  to  adopt  any 
system  of  rotation.  This  deceptive  and  suicidal  system  of 
robbing  the  soil  finally  led  to  so-called  physiological  diseases 
and  diminished  yields  which  require  serious  attention.  It  was 
soon  found  that  the  so-called  senility  of  the  Lahaina  cane  was 
due  entirely  to  the  destruction  of  the  humus  in  the  soils  and 
the  consequent  deterioration  of  the  physical  condition  of  the 
soil.  By  returning  to  the  soil  the  natural  cane  trash,  together 
with  legumes  and  other  weeds  which  were  allowed  to  grow  in 
the  interval  between  harvesting  and  plowing,  it  was  found 
possible  to  bring  the  yield  back  to  standard  and  to  demon- 
strate that  the  so-called  senility  was  not  a  disease  of  cane 
but  merely  an  indication  of  poor  soil  management.  In  Java, 
Louisiana,  Mauritius,  British  India,  Egypt,  and  certain  other 
cane-producing  countries,  some  form  of  rotation  is  practiced. 
No  rotation  system,  however,  has  been  adopted  in  Cuba,  Ha- 
waii, Trinidad,  or  Fiji,  but  in  Hawaii  the  present  tendency 
to  plow  under  the  cane  trash  and  to  secure  as  much  green 
material  as  possible  from  a  quick  growing  legume,  such  as 
Crotalaria  or  Jack  bean,  may  be  said  to  take  the  place  of  the 
regular  system  of  rotation. 

According  to  results  thus  far  obtained,  it  appears  that  in 
Hawaii  about  1,000  pounds  of  water  are  required  for  the  pro- 
duction of  a  pound  of  cane  sugar.  The  average  application 
of  irrigation  water  in  Hawaii  is  about  75  inches  in  a  dis- 
trict where  the  normal  rainfall  is  25  inches.  Outside  of  the 
districts  of  heavy  rainfall  cane  is  irrigated  in  nearly  all  parts 
of  cane-producing  countries  On  the  lowlands  near  the  sea- 


SUGAR  CANE  49 

shore  the  irrigation  waters  usually  contain  a  certain  amount 
of  salt.  It  has  been  found  that  water  may  be  safely  used  for 
irrigation  if  it  contains  no  more  than  100  grains  of  salt  per 
gallon. 

In  plowing  cane  lands  quite  different  practices  prevail  in 
different  countries.  In  Poona,  India,  the  land  is  plowed  with 
mold-board  plows  drawn  by  ox  teams  and  the  depth  of  plow- 
ing is  10  to  12  inches.  In  Cuba,  the  cane  soils  are  likewise 
plowed  with  ox-drawn  mold-board  plows  but  usually  not  to 
a  depth  exceeding  8  or  10  inches.  In  Hawaii,  steam  power  is 
chiefly  used  in  plowing  cane  soils  and  the  depth  of  plowing 
is  from  12  to  24  inches,  usually  about  16  inches.  It  has  been 
definitely  shown  that  deep  plowing  is  beneficial.  Moreover, 
as  it  has  recently  been  demonstrated  to  the  satisfaction  of 
plantation  managers  that  cane  trash  and  green  manuring  crops 
are  necessary  for  a  continued  high  yield  of  sugar  cane,  the 
managers  have  adopted  special  plows  for  turning  under  the 
cane  trash  and  legumes  and  weeds. 

As  is  generally  known,  even  to  those  who  have  never  visited 
cane  plantations,  cane  seed  means  segments  of  the  stalk  of 
the  cane  cut  in  lengths  of  8  to  10  inches.  These  sticks  of  seed 
cane  are  commonly  cut  from  the  top  of  the  cane  and  are  . 
planted  in  furrows  or  holes,  mostly  in  furrows.  They  are 
usually  dropped  in  a  continuous  row  at  the  bottom  of  the  fur- 
row or  sometimes  a  double  row,  as,  for  example,  in  Louisiana. 
These  rows  are  from  3  to  7  feet  apart.  The  amount  of  seed 
required  per  acre  varies  from  1^/2  to  4  tons,  according  to  the 
distance  between  the  rows  and  whether  or  not  two  rows  of 
sticks  are  dropped  in  each  furrow.  In  Louisiana,  seed  cane 
has  to  be  preserved  over  winter  by  burying  in  the  ground. 

On  irrigated  plantations,  weeding  must  be  done  by  hand  and   v 
not  by  machines,  for  horse  or  power  machines  would  spoil  or 
fill  up  the  furrows  and  thus  prevent  irrigation.    Various  kinds 
of  cultivators,  row  straddlers,  and  other  implements  are  used 
on  nonirrigated  cane.    Recently  in  Hawaii,  particularly  in  the 


50  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

districts  of  heavy  rainfall,  the  use  of  arsenite  of  soda  has  been 
adopted  in  destroying  weeds.  This  chemical  method  of  de- 
stroying weeds  is  much  cheaper  than  mechanical  methods  and 
in  seasons  of  almost  continuous  rain  can  be  applied  with- 
out injuring  the  soil,  whereas  cultivation  of  the  muddy  soil 
would  not  only  not  destroy  the  weeds  but  would  injure  the 
texture  of  the  soil.  The  practice  of  stripping  the  lower  leaves 
from  the  cane  at  two  or  three  periods  during  the  growth  of 
/the  crop  has  been  practiced  quite  commonly  on  some  of  the 
Hawaiian  plantations  and  elsewhere,  but  the  results  show  that 
this  practice  is  of  doubtful  value.  Cane  leaves  by  analysis  as 
well  as  by  field  experiments  have  been  shown  to  have  large 
value  in  nitrogen  and  humus  for  the  maintenance  of  soil  fer- 
tility. 

The  harvesting  season  for  cane  varies  in  different  countries. 
It  extends  over  a  rather  long  period  in  Hawaii,  commonly  from 
December  to  the  following  September.  In  Louisiana,  the  har- 
vesting season  extends  from  October  to  January.  The  tas- 
seling  of  cane  marks  the  end  of  growth.  Cane  may,  however, 
be  allowed  to  stand  for  at  least  six  months  after  tasseling  be- 
fore any  loss  of  sugar  occurs.  There  is  a  great  variation  in 
the  yield  of  cane  per  acre  in  different  countries,  the  limits  of 
variation  being  .perhaps  6  and  120  tons.  In  Louisiana,  the 
yield  is  about  20  tons,  in  Java  about  40,  and  in  Cuba  about  17. 
Hawaii  has  perhaps  the  highest  yield.  The  average  yield  of 
sugar  per  acre  in  Hawaii  is  4^2  tons  and  the  average  yield  of 
cane  is  about  50  tons.  In  Hawaii,  yields  of  15  tons  of  sugar 
per  acre  have  been  obtained  in  localities  where  the  soil  and 
climatic  conditions  are  especially  favorable.  The  number  of 
tons  of  cane  required  to  produce  a  ton  of  sugar  naturally  de- 
pends on  the  percentage  of  sugar  in  the  juice  and  purity  of 
the  juice.  In  Hawaii,  from  8  to  10  tons  of  cane  are  required  to 
produce  a  ton  of  sugar. 

Thus  far  no  successful  cane  harvester  has  been  devised, 
although  repeated  efforts  have  been  made  to  perfect  a  machine 


SUGAR  CANE  51 

which  would  economically  harvest  cane  and  save  a  great  part 
of  the  hand  labor  required  in  this  operation.  Cane  is  therefore 
cut  with  a  cane  knife  and  is  carried  to  the  mill  in  special  cane 
cars  on  permanent  or  portable  tracks,  in  water  flumes,  by  ox 
carts,  in  canals,  especially  in  Demerara  and  Straits  Settlements, 
or  on  aerial  cables. 

In  most  modern  sugar  mills  cane  is  crushed  and  the  juice  is 
expressed  in  three-roller-units.  In  each  unit  the  rollers  are  so 
placed  that  their  centers  are  at  the  angles  of  an  isosceles  tri- 
angle. The  rollers  are  commonly  30  by  60  inches,  or  34  by  78 
inches,  are  made  of  steel,  and  are  variously  grooved  and 
ridged.  Sugar  mills  may  be  9,  12,  or  15  roller  mills,  that  is, 
contain  a  series  of  3,  4,  or  5  three-roller-units.  These 
rollers  are  often  preceded  by  a  forced  feeding  device  and  a 
shredder  or  crusher.  It  has  been  found  in  Hawaii  that  a  12- 
roller  mill  with  rollers  30  by  60  inches  would  treat  50  tons  of 
cane  per  hour.  The  pressure  on  the  upper  roller  varies  from 
200  to  400  tons  in  different  mills  and  the  surface  of  the  rollers 
revolves  at  a  speed  of  16  to  25  feet  per  minute. 

Another  method  for  extracting  sugar  is  the  diffusion  process. 
This  process  depends  upon  the  principle  of  osmosis.  The 
method  has  been  adopted  on  many  plantations  in  different 
countries  and  is  still  in  operation.  In  extracting  sugar  by 
this  method  cane  is  cut  into  thin  slices  about  1-20  inch  thick 
The  juice  is  then  allowed  to  diffuse  into  pure  water  or  into 
dilute  juice  in  a  series  of  vessels.  While  this  method,  as 
just  stated,  is  still  in  use,  it  is  for  the  most  part  in  operation 
only  on  small  plantations.  At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Ha- 
waiian Sugar  Planters'  Association  in  November,  1915,  some 
interest  was  manifested  in  experiments  with  this  method  in 
Hawaii  and  one  manager  stated  that  a  large  plant  would  soon 
be  installed  to  give  the  method  a  thorough  test. 

By  the  usual  process  of  sugar  extraction,  the  juice  from  the 
crushed  cane  is  at  once  heated  to  a  temperature  of  190°  to 
200°  F.  to  clarify  it.  Lime  is  added  to  the  juice  at  the  same 


52  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

time  to  assist  the  process  of  clarification.  Sulphur,  phosphoric 
acid,  and  other  chemicals  have  also  been  used  for  the  same 
purpose.  The  purpose  of  adding  lime  is  to  precipitate  vari- 
ous impurities  out  of  the  juice.  After  this  process  of  clarifi- 
cation the  juice  is  at  once  filtered  in  large  filter  presses  for 
the  purpose  of  removing  the  mud  and  the  precipitated  im- 
purities. The  juice  is  then  boiled  in  a  multiple  series  evaporat- 
ing apparatus  to  the  consistency  of  sirup.  It  contains  in  that 
stage  about  55  per  cent,  solids  in  solution.  The  sirup  is  then 
boiled  in  vacuum  pans  until  it  is  condensed  to  the  point  where 
it  separates  into  crystalline  sugar  and  uncrystallizable  mo- 
lasses. The  whole  mass  at  this  stage  is  called  massecuite.  The 
crystallized  sugar  is  then  separated  from  the  molasses  by  cen- 
trifugals, the  sugar  crystals  being  caught  on  a  fine  wire  gauze 
strainer  with  400  to  500  meshes  to  the  inch,  while  the  mo- 
lasses is  thrown  out  by  centrifugal  force.  The  crystallized 
sugar  is  removed  from  the  centrifugal  and  at  once  packed  for 
export  as  raw  sugar. 

The  machinery  concerned  in  the  manufacture  of  sugar  has 
reached  a  stage  of  great  elaboration  and  of  striking  perfec- 
tion. The  whole  process  is  a  continuous  one  from  the  time  the 
cane  arrives  at  the  mill  until  the  sugar  is  sewed  up  in  the  bags. 

Molasses  resulting  from  the  manufacture  of  cane  sugar 
varies  greatly  in  composition  but  contains  on  an  average  about 
25  per  cent,  water;  50  per  cent,  sugars  (40  per  cent,  sucrose 
and  10  per  cent,  glucose  and  reducing  sugars),  15  per  cent, 
organic  material  (nonsugar),  and  10  per  cent.  ash.  The  low- 
est percentage  of  reducing  sugar  occurs  in  Hawaii  and  the 
highest  in  Demerara  and  Louisiana.  The  chief  constituent  of 
the  ash  of  molasses  is  potash  in  the  form  of  a  sulphate.  In 
fact,  sulphate  of  potash  constitutes  about  4  per  cent,  of  the 
molasses.  The  amount  of  molasses  obtained  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  sugar  is  about  20  per  cent,  that  of  the  sugar  in  Hawaii 
and  40  per  cent,  that  of  the  sugar  in  Demerara.  Waste  mo- 
lasses is  used  in  making  denatured  alcohol  and  rum,  as  a  fuel 


SUGAR  CANE  53 

along  with  bagasse  in  boiler  furnaces,  and  as  a  fertilizer.  As 
a  stock  feed,  waste  molasses  must  be  used  with  certain  restric- 
tions for  the  reason  that  the  high  content  of  sulphate  of  potash 
causes  digestive  troubles  and  even  more  serious  physiological 
disturbances.  When  molasses  is  used  as  a  fertilizer  the  ash  is, 
of  course,  directly  beneficial  since  it  contains  a  high  per- 
centage of  sulphate  of  potash  and  the  sugars  in  molasses  per- 
haps serve  as  food  for  nitrogen-gathering  bacteria. 

Bagasse  as  it  comes  from  the  last  battery  of  rollers  contains 
sometimes  as  low  as  40  per  cent,  water  but  usually  45  to  50 
per  cent.  Bagasse  makes  a  satisfactory  fuel  for  boilers  with 
or  without  further  drying.  In  fact,  on  most  plantations 
bagasse  constitutes  the  chief  fuel  used  in  sugar  mills. 

Java  has  made  a  greater  scientific  contribution  than  any 
other  country  to  the  whole  subject  of  sugar  cane,  including 
field  culture,  chemistry,  manufacture,  diseases  and  insect  pests, 
and  selection  of  cane.  The  scientific  investigation  of  sugar 
cane  in  Java  is  under  government  supervision.  In  Hawaii,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  Sugar  Planters'  Experiment  Station  is  a 
private  institution  supported  entirely  by  assessments  on  the 
sugar  plantations  of  Hawaii  and  controlling  absolutely  the  re- 
sults of  its  investigations.  Most  of  the  publications  of  the 
experiment  station  of  the  Hawaii  Sugar  Planters'  Association 
are  not  available  except  to  members  of  the  Association  and 
certain  libraries  and  other  institutions. 

The  production  of  beet  sugar  passed  that  of  cane  sugar  in 
1883  and  maintained  its  lead  until  recently.  Sugar  and  mo- 
lasses are  also  obtained  from  various  other  sources,  espe- 
cially sorghum,  a  considerable  variety  of  palms,  maple,  etc., 
but  all  sources  of  sugar  except  sugar  beet  and  sugar  cane  are 
of  very  minor  importance. 

The  most  recent  available  statistics  on  cane  sugar  showed 
the  following  annual  production :  Cuba,  3,000,000  tons ;  Brit- 
ish India,  2,534,000  tons;  Java,  1,591,000  tons;  Hawaii,  612,- 
ooo  tons;  Porto  Rico,  364,000  tons;  Argentina,  304,000  tons; 


54  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

Louisiana,  293,000  tons;  Mauritius,  271,000  tons;  Queensland, 
263,000  tons ;  Philippine  Islands,  235,000  tons ;  Brazil,  228,000 
tons;  Formosa,  213,000  tons;  Peru,  212,000  tons;  Mexico, 
143,000  tons;  British  Guiana,  114,000  tons;  Fiji,  112,000  tons; 
Dominican  Republic,  87,000  tons;  and  lesser  amounts  in  the 
various  other  cane-producing  countries. 

The  methods  of  cultivation  and  manufacture  of  sugar  vary 
greatly  in  different  countries.  Sugar  manufacture  may  be  car- 
ried on  in  central  cooperative  mills  patronized  by  small  planters 
or  in  mills  owned  by  corporations  to  which  cane  is  furnished  by 
independent  growers  or  in  mills  owned  by  companies  which 
raise  all  their  cane  on  owned  or  leased  land  or  by  several  other 
systems  of  organization.  The  mill  company  contracts  for  buy- 
ing cane  vary  greatly  in  different  countries  and  with  different 
plantations  in  the  same  country.  Where  the  plan  of  pay- 
ing for  cane  on  a  cash  basis  is  determined  by  the  price  of 
sugar,  the  amount  received  by  the  homesteader  or  small  cane 
grower  varies  from  48  per  cent,  in  Hawaii  to  70  per  cent,  in 
Porto  Rico.  Another  method  of  paying  for  cane  in  Hawaii 
consists  in  a  flat  rate  price  of  about  $4  per  ton  for  the  sugar 
cane.  This  contract  removes  all  possibility  of  the  small  grower 
making  a  profit  from  his  operations.  Contracts  for  cane  buy- 
ing vary  in  other  particulars  from  fairness  to  various  degrees 
of  unfairness  up  to  a  practical  condition  of  peonage.  The  com- 
plaint which  most  small  growers  make  about  cane-buying  con- 
tracts, aside  from  the  obvious  fact  that  they  cannot  make  a 
profit  according  to  the  terms  of  contract,  is  that  the  contracts 
are  ordinarily  stated  in  suqh  involved  legal  phraseology  as  to 
be  practically  unintelligible  to  the  average  man  and  always  am- 
biguous. For  the  most  part,  these  contracts  leave  certain 
points  to  be  determined  by  the  sugar  mill  company. 

Cane  sugar  is  shipped  from  the  producing  countries  either  as 
raw  or  refined  sugar.  Java  does  its  own  refining,  while  Cuba 
and  Hawaii  ship  nearly  all  their  sugar  in  the  raw  condition 
just  as  it  comes  from  the  centrifugals, 


SUGAR  CANE  55 

Modern  methods  described  above  are  not  everywhere  in  use 
in  the  manufacture  of  cane  sugar.  In  India,  for  example,  cane 
is  crushed  by  wooden  rollers  with  ox  power,  the  juice  is  boiled 
in  open  pans,  and  the  process  results  in  the  production  of  gur 
or  jaggery,  which  goes  into  local  trade  in  hard  crystalline 
masses  weighing  50  to  75  pounds. 


CHAPTER   VII 
COCONUTS 

THE  coconut  (Cocos  nucifera)  is  a  native  of  the  Malay  Ar- 
chipelago and  Africa.  It  has  been  carried  accidentally  and 
intentionally  to  all  parts  of  the  Tropics  and  subtropics  where 
it  may  now  be  found  growing  especially  along  the  seashore, 
but  occurring  also  up  to  an  elevation  of  2,000  feet.  The  coco- 
nut is  one  of  the  most  graceful  and  beautiful  of  the  palm 
tribe  of  trees.  It  commonly  reaches  a  height  of  50  to  80  feet 
but  often  attains  a  considerably  greater  height.  The  trunk  is 
slender  and  never  straight.  It  is  usually  swollen  and  bottle- 
shaped  at  the  base.  The  roots  are  very  numerous  and  long 
and  fibrous.  The  peculiar  leaning  or  almost  reclining  habit  of 
the  trunk  of  the  coconut  palm  seems  to  be  one  of  the  natural 
characteristics  of  the  tree  and  readily  distinguishes  it  from  the 
habit  of  growth  of  most  other  palms.  The  leaning  habit  is 
not  caused  by  winds  for  the  reason  that,  in  any  grove  of  coco- 
nuts, trees  may  be  found  leaning  with  the  wind,  directly 
against  the  wind,  and  in  all  other  directions  without  any  ap- 
parent order  or  preference.  In  many  cases  the  trunks  lean 
as  much  as  15°  away  from  the  perpendicular  and  in  the  case 
of  very  tall  trees  this  must  cause  a  great  strain  upon  the 
fibrous  roots.  Notwithstanding  the  height  of  coconut  trees  and 
the  fact  that  all  of  the  leaves  are  confined  to  a  large  cluster 
at  the  tip  of  the  trunk,  the  trees  are  seldom  injured  by  winds 
except  in  the  case  of  the  most  violent  typhoons  or  hurricanes. 

The  graceful,  pinnate  leaves  of  the  coconut  are  6  to  12 
feet  long  and  18  inches  or  more  in  width.  The  flowers  ap- 

56 


COCONUTS  57 

pear  in  a  large  compound  spadix  and,  as  in  the  case  of  many 
other  palms,  are  at  first  inclosed  in  a  spathe. 

The  coconut  is  one  of  the  world's  most  important  economic 
plants.  Its  uses  are  almost  innumerable.  The  nut  yields  co- 
conut oil,  copra,  coconut  meal,  coir,  desiccated  coconut,  co- 
conut milk,  and  hard  shells  used  in  making  utensils,  and  a  fine 
quality  of  charcoal.  By  tapping  the  inflorescence  before  the 
spathe  opens  one  obtains  a  sweet  liquid  called  toddy,  which 
on  evaporation  yields  a  crude  sugar  known  as  jaggery.  More- 
over, the  leaves  yield  fiber,  paper-stock,  material  for  making 
hats,  baskets,  mats,  thatching,  etc.  The  cross-laced  fiber  at 
the  base  of  the  leaves  is  used  as  sieves  and  for  other  pur- 
poses by  natives.  The  trunk  of  the  coconut  tree  is  used  for 
making  walking  sticks,  for  construction  purposes,  as  dug- 
out canoes,  and  in  various  other  ways. 

Estimates  of  the  world's  total  production  of  coconuts  are 
not  very  complete  and  are  therefore  somewhat  unreliable. 
Probably  50  per  cent,  of  the  total  amount  of  coconuts  pro- 
duced is  consumed  in  the  producing  countries.  The  world's 
trade  in  copra  at  the  present  time  is  about  700,000  tons  an- 
nually and  is  increasing  in  amount  quite  rapidly.  There  are 
about  3,500,000  acres  in  coconuts  with  an  average  of  perhaps 
loo  trees  per  acre.  Of  this  area  about  800,000  acres  are  in 
Ceylon,  500,000  in  the  Philippines,  500,000  in  tropical  South 
America,  380,000  in  British  India,  370,000  in  Central  America, 
270,000  in  the  small  islands  of  the  Pacific,  250,000  in  New 
Guinea  and  Straits  Settlements,  and  smaller  areas  in  Java, 
Sumatra,  Mauritius,  Madagascar,  Zanzibar,  Seychelles,  Re- 
union, Siam,  Cochin  China,  the  West  Indies,  including  Cuba, 
Jamaica,  Porto  Rico,  etc.,  and  tropical  America. 

The  question  of  coconut  varieties  is  much  muddled.  There 
are,  perhaps,  25  or  30  varieties.  Simons  used  such  descriptive 
variety  names  as  green,  yellow,  black,  red,  heavy,  and  globular. 
Other  writers  on  coconuts  have  used  merely  geographical 
names  for  varieties,  such  as  Coromandel,  Malabar,  Maldive, 


58  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

Siamese,  Samoan,  Ceylon,  Pemba,  etc.  Until  more  work 
has  been  done  in  the  identification  of  coconut  varieties,  it  is 
quite  useless  to  present  elaborate  descriptions  of  these  varie- 
ties. 

The  coconut  is  essentially  a  tropical  plant  and  thrives  best 
inside  the  boundaries  of  the  true  Tropics  from  sea  level  up 
to  an  elevation  of  about  2,000  feet.  It  appears  to  thrive 
equally  well  in  almost  any  kind  of  soil,  even  in  coral  sand 
and  in  brackish  water.  In  fact,  it  grows  well  along  the  actual 
fringe  of  the  sea  beach  where  its  roots  stand  in  salt  water. 

For  planting,  mature  nuts  from  trees  which  regularly  yield 
a  heavy  crop  are  selected.  The  nuts  are  held  for  thorough 
curing  for  a  period  of  2  to  4  weeks  before  planting.  They 
are  then  planted  in  rows  4  to  5  feet  apart  in  the  nursery  and 
barely  covered  with  earth.  The  nuts  are  laid  on  one  side  and 
mulch  of  straw  or  leaves  may  be  placed  over  the  germinating 
nuts.  The  coconut  nursery  should  have  some  shade  for  the 
best  results.  Germination  requires  3  or  4  months  and  about 
90  per  cent,  of  the  nuts  germinate.  The  seedlings  are  trans- 
planted at  about  one  year  of  age.  The  nuts  are  often  planted 
in  the  field  without  the  use  of  a  nursery  but  the  care  required 
during  the  germination  is  much  more  expensive  in  the  field 
than  in  the  nursery.  The  planting  distances  vary  greatly  in 
different  localities.  As  a  rule,  in  commercial  coconut  planta- 
tions, the  number  of  trees  per  acre  ranges  from  50  to  150. 
In  some  old  coconut  groves  there  are  300  or  even  400  trees 
per  acre.  With  such  close  planting,  however,  the  results  are 
not  at  all  satisfactory. 

The  growth  of  coconut  trees  is  much  improved  and  earlier 
fruiting  is  promoted  by  clean  cultivation  or  intercropping  with 
sweet  potatoes,  soy  beans,  or  some  other  suitable  crop  during 
the  first  two  or  three  years.  The  trees  in  plantations  treated 
in  this  manner  develop  a  much  larger  trunk  and  come  into 
bearing  two  or  three  years  sooner  than  would  be  the  case  in 
a  neglected  or  uncultivated  plantation.  After  coconut  plan- 


CROWN  OF  COCONUT  TREE  WITH  NUTS  IN  VARIOUS  STAGES  OF  GROWTH 


COCONUTS  59 

tations  come  into  bearing  the  use  of  cover  crops  and  light  ap- 
plications of  potash  and  phosphoric  acid  will  help  to  maintain 
the  yield.  Some  irrigation  may  be  necessary  until  the  young 
trees  have  become  thoroughly  established  with  roots  reaching 
down  to  water.  The  growth  periods  of  the  coconut  are  about 
as  follows :  Leaves  with  the  mature  pinnate  form  appear  at 
15  months,  a  beginning  of  a  trunk  appears  at  4  years,  the  first 
flowers  are  commonly  observed  at  the  age  of  5  years,  and  the  .> 
first  fruit  at  6  years.  These  figures  perhaps  represent  the 
average  conditions  in  the  Tropics  at  sea  level.  In  higher  alti- 
tudes or  latitudes  the  growth  is  slower.  Even  in  the  Tropics 
most  trees  do  not  begin  to  bear  on  a  commercial  scale  until  f 
they  reach  the  age  of  7  to  10  years.  In  some  extra  tropical 
localities,  however,  as  for  example,  in  southern  Florida,  coco- 
nuts may  begin  to  bear  at  the  age  of  4  or  5  years.  The  reasons 
for  this  early  maturity  are  not  well  understood. 

Flowering  and  fruiting  of  the  coconut  goes  on  almost  con- 
tinuously and  ripe  nuts  are  to  be  had  every  month  of  the  year. 
The  nuts  are  usually  picked  every  two  months,  but  in  Zanzibar 
only  four  pickings  a  year  are  commonly  made.  It  is  not  rare 
to  find  individual  trees  which  mature  15  nuts  per  month  or 
at  the  rate  of  180  nuts  a  year.  I  have  seen  a  yield  of  200 
nuts  from  one  tree  in  12  months,  but  one  cannot  depend  upon 
more  than  100  nuts  per  tree  per  year  even  under  the  best  con-  ^ 
ditions.  In  fact,  the  commercial  average  is  probably  not  above 
50  nuts  for  each  mature  tree  per  year.  On  poor,  thin,  and 
sandy  soils  the  average  may  be  reduced  to  15  to  20  nuts  per 
year.  The  coconut  comes  into  full  bearing  at  the  age  of  18  to  / 
20  years. 

The  size  of  the  coconut  varies  according  to  variety.  De- 
pending upon  the  variety,  from  3,500  to  7,000  nuts  are  re- 
quired for  the  production  of  a  ton  of  copra.  A  ton  of  copra 
in  turn  will  yield  1,200  pounds  of  coconut  oil  and  800  pounds 
of  coconut  meal  or  poonac.  In  the  experience  of  the  Ceylon 
planters,  165  pounds  of  coir  fiber  are  obtained  from  every 


60  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

1,000  nuts.  The  meat  of  the  fresh  coconut  contains  about 
53  per  cent,  of  water  and  30  per  cent,  of  oil,  and  dried  copra 
contains  2  to  7  per  cent,  of  water  and  64  to  71  per  cent,  of  oil. 
Coconuts  are  husked  by  hand  by  means  of  a  sharp  steel  pike 
or  similar  instrument  securely  fastened  in  a  block  of  wood. 
The  coconut  is  grasped  firmly  in  the  hands  and  driven  upon 
the  pike  after  which  a  wrenching  motion  splits  off  a  portion 
of  the  husk.  Two  or  three  motions  of  this  sort  are  sufficient 
to  remove  the  husk  from  the  nut.  An  experienced  laborer 
will  husk  1,200  to  2,500  nuts  per  day.  The  husked  nut  is 
easily  broken  into  two  hemispheres  by  a  sharp  blow  with  a 
heavy  dull  knife,  either  a  cane  knife  or  machete.  The  nuts 
are  then  dried  in  the  sun  or  in  kilns.  About  one-half  of 
the  world's  supply  of  copra  is  dried  in  the  sun.  Within  a  few 
hours  the  meat  curls  away  from  the  hard  shell  and  is  easily 
removed.  The  sun  drying  process  requires  2  to  4  days,  while 
artificial  driers  may  produce  the  same  result  within  3  to  20 
hours.  Experiments  are  now  being  made  with  several  kinds 
of  desiccating  apparatus  in  an  attempt  to  hasten  the  process 
of  drying  and  thus  to  produce  \  better  quality  of  product. 
The  dried  coconut  meat  is  the  copra  of  commerce.  In  the 
ordinary  sun-drying  processes  'the  copra  obtained  is  a  dark 
brown  or  black  product  of  extremely  uninviting  appearance. 
An  almost  white  copra,  resembling  the  desiccated,  shredded 
coconut  in  color,  may  be  obtained  by  the  use  of  artificial  driers. 
.  Coconut  oil  was  formerly  used  chiefly  in  the  manufacture 
of  soap  and  candles.  Methods  of  purifying  the  oil  have  been 
devised  and  it  is  now  extensively  used  for  human  food,  espe- 
cially in  coconut-butter,  also  called  nut-butter,  vegetaline,  and 
palmine,  a  product  extensively  manufactured  in  Marseilles 
and  elsewhere  since  1897.  Both  the  solid  and  liquid  portions 
of  coconut  oil  are  also  used  in  various  cooking  oils  and  mar- 
garines. Coconut  oil  is  yellow  or  pale  in  color  and  the  best 
and  clearest  grade  of  the  oil  comes  from  Malabar.  At  tem- 
peratures below  74°  F.  the  oil  becomes  solid.  The  oleic  and 


COCONUTS  61 

stearic  portions  of  the  oil  may  easily  be  separated  as  is  the 
case  with  many  other  oils.  Coconut  oil  is  obtained  from 
the  dried  copra  by  pressure.  For  food  purposes  only  cold 
pressed  oil  is  used,  while  hot  pressed  oil  is  used  for  soaps, 
candles,  and  various  other  purposes.  The  present  methods 
actually  recover  60  to  65  per  cent,  of  the  weight  of  copra  in 
oil.  The  new  style  of  hydraulic  presses  leave  only  about  two 
per  cent,  of  the  oil  in  the  pressed  cake  or  poonac.  Coconut 
meal  usually  contains  8  to  12  per  cent,  of  fat  and  18  or  19 
per  cent,  of  protein.  It  is  an  excellent  stock  feed,  as  shown  by 
the  numerous  experiments  which  have  been  carried  on  in  the 
United  States  and  elsewhere.  In  feeding  experiments  in  India, 
where  coconut  meal  is  called  poonac,  equally  satisfactory  re- 
sults have  been  obtained. 

The  world's  supply  of  desiccated  shredded  coconut  comes 
almost  entirely  from  Ceylon.  The  supply  of  this  product  is 
now  about  31,500,000  pounds  annually,  and  a  large  percentage 
of  it  is  used  in  the  United  States.  In  making  desiccated 
shredded  coconut  the  best  mature  nuts  are  selected.  These 
nuts  are  cured  for  about  three  weeks,  then  cracked,  and  the 
meat  removed  while  fresh.  The  brown  skin  on  the  surface 
of  the  meat  is  scraped  off,  the  meat  is  immediately  shredded, 
and  then  dried  in  hot-air  oven's  at  a  temperature  of  160°  F. 
The  product  is  sorted  according  to  the  length  of  the  shreds  or 
strips  and  is  packed  in  tea  boxes  or  other  packages  containing 
about  130  pounds  each.  One  laborer  will  crack  about  5,000 
nuts  a  day. 

In  preparing  coir,  or  coconut  fiber,  the  husks  are  retted  in 
tanks  of  water  or  steamed  until  they  become  soft.  They  are 
then  beaten  and  dried  and  the  broken  powdery  waste  material 
is  separated  from  the  coir  fiber  by  hand  or  machinery.  The 
fiber  is  carded  by  special  machines,  washed,  dried,  again 
carded,  this  time  by  hand,  sorted,  and  baled.  Coir  fiber  from 
old  nuts  is  dark  brown,  but  from  young  nuts  the  fiber  is  lighter 
in  color.  It  cannot  be  artificially  bleached  without  causing 


62  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

great  injury  to  the  fiber.  Coir  is  extremely  resistant  to  salt 
water.  For  this  purpose  it  has  been  much  used  for  ship 
cables.  It  is  also  extensively  used  for  ropes,  mattresses,  cush- 
ions, door  mats,  coarse  hall  matting,  nose  bags  for  horses, 
bags  for  oil  presses,  yarn  for  weaving  into  finer  matting, 
brushes,  etc.  The  coconut  waste  obtained  in  cleaning  the  coir 
fiber  is  used  as  bedding  for  animals,  as  packing  material  for 
nursery  stock,  as  insulating  material  for  cold  storage,  and 
for  other  purposes.  Coir  fiber  brings  from  2^2  to  6  cents  a 
pound. 

By  incising  or  bruising  the  flower  spadix  about  3  or  4  months 
after  the  spathe  appears  and  before  it  has  opened,  a  consider- 
able quantity  of  toddy  is  secured  containing  14  per  cent,  of 
sugar.  This  sweet  juice  may  easily  be  fermented  into  arack, 
or  vinegar,  or  may  be  condensed  by  boiling  into  jaggery  or 
raw  sugar. 

Of  the  territory  belonging  to  the  United  States,  the  Philip- 
pines are  most  active  in  the  production  of  coconuts.  In  the 
Philippine  Islands,  there  are  at  present  about  30,000,000  ma- 
ture coconut  trees  and  20,000,000  young  trees.  Interest  in 
the  coconut  industry  in  the  Philippines  is  active  and  further 
planting  is  going  on  quite  rapidly.  About  175,000  tons  of 
copra  annually,  or  one-fourth  of  the  world's  output  of  copra,  is 
produced  in  the  Philippines.  In  southern  Florida  coconuts 
are  being  planted  by  the  thousand.  Little  interest,  however, 
has  thus  far  been  taken  in  them  as  a  commercial  crop.  For 
the  most  part  they  are  considered  merely  as  ornamentals. 
They  come  into  bearing  early,  however,  in  Florida,  and  the 
time  is  coming  when  the  product  of  these  trees  will  be  of 
sufficient  importance  to  attract  the  attention  of  coconut  buyers. 

The  coconut  is  one  of  the  hardiest  and  longest-lived  crops 
in  the  whole  list  of  agricultural  products.  After  the  trees  have 
become  mature  they  require  little  or  no  attention  except  for 
the  occasional  application  of  fertilizer.  On  account  of  the 
profits  which  have  been  obtained  from  coconut  plantations  in 


COCONUTS  63 

full  bearing,  a  wide  commercial  interest  has  been  manifested 
in  further  planting.  A  great  increase  in  the  total  supply  of 
coconuts  has  thus  been  brought  about,  but  limits  of  the  demand 
for  coconuts  seem  not  yet  to  have  been  approached.  The  price 
of  copra  has  steadily  risen  even  with  the  increased  supply. 
So  far  as  may  be  judged  by  present  appearances,  especially 
taking  into  consideration  the  additional  modern  uses  of  coco- 
nut and  its  products,  the  coconut  industry  seems  to  be  about 
as  safe  and  secure  from  a  financial  standpoint  as  any  tropical 
agricultural  industry.  There  is  one  serious  enemy  of  the 
coconut  which  has  wrought  havoc  in  Cuba,  Jamaica,  and  a 
few  other  localities  in  the  West  Indies.  This  is  the  bud  rot, 
which  has  been  shown  to  be  a  bacterial  disease.  Whole  groves 
of  coconuts  have  been  annihilated  by  this  disease  within  3  or 
4  years,  and  Cuba  perhaps  has  suffered  most  severely  from 
the  disease.  It  appeared  seriously  in  Cuba  about  35  years 
ago  and  its  progress  has  caused  the  almost  complete  disap- 
pearance of  coconuts  from  the  island  of  Cuba  except  in  the 
Baracoa  district  of  the  extreme  eastern  end  of  the  island. 
In  1906,  Cuba  was  the  main  source  of  supply  of  coconuts  for 
the  United  States.  .At  present,  the  Baracoa  district  furnishes 
10,000,000  to  15,000,000  nuts  annually  for  the  American  trade. 
An  indication  of  the  importance  of  the  coconut  industry  may 
be  obtained  from  the  mere  casual  consideration  of  the  United 
States  imports  of  coconut  products.  In  1914,  the  United 
States  imported  60,000,000  pounds  of  copra,  58,000,000  pounds 
of  coconut  oil,  and  unshelled  coconuts  to  the  value  of  $1,800,- 
ooo.  These  unshelled  coconuts  were  largely  used  in  the  retail 
trade  and  in  the  manufacture  of  desiccated  shredded  coconut. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
BEVERAGES 

OF  the  large  list  of  plant  substances  used  in  tropical  coun- 
tries for  preparing  beverages  only  a  few  have  attained  com- 
mercial importance.  These  are  coffee,  tea,  cacao,  mate,  and 
kola  nuts.  There  are  many  other  tropical  plants  which  fur- 
nish beverages,  used  on  account  of  their  flavor  or  as  stimu- 
lants, but  for  the  most  part  they  are  consumed  only  by  natives 
of  tropical  countries  and  are  not  prepared  on  a  commercial 
scale.  In  the  United  States  the  only  tropical  beverages  used 
in  considerable  quantities  are  coffee,  tea,  and  cacao.  Coffee 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  list  in  commercial  importance,  but 
in  recent  years  the  consumption  of  tea  is  increasing  in  the 
United  States.  At  first  green  teas  were  preferred  but  recently 
the  demand  for  black  teas  is  increasing. 

COFFEE 

There  are  several  species  of  coffee  of  which  the  berries  are 
used  in  preparing  the  familiar  breakfast  beverage.  Chief 
among  these  species  are  Coffea  arabica,  C.  robusta,  and  C. 
liberlca.  The  first  named  species  is  commonly  known  as  Ara- 
bian coffee,  a  native  of  Abyssinia.  The  Liberian  coffee  is  na- 
tive of  west  tropical  Africa,  while  Coffea  robusta  comes  origi- 
nally from  the  Congo.  Coffee  was  apparently  first  used  as  a 
beverage  in  Aden  and  later  in  Constantinople.  It  appeared  in 
Venice  in  1615,  in  Paris  in  1645,  and  in  London  in  1650.  The 
habit  of  drinking  coffee  spread  rapidly  in  all  towns  in  which 
the  product  was  introduced.  Until  1690  the  world's  supply 

64 


BEVERAGES  65 

of  coffee  came  from  Arabia  and  Abyssinia.  Coffee  was  in- 
troduced from  Mocha  in  Arabia  to  Java  in  1690  and  to  Ceylon 
at  about  the  same  date.  It  was  in  Ceylon  and  Java  that  the 
first  great  development  of  the  commercial  coffee  industry  took 
place.  Coffee  production  in  Ceylon  assumed  enormous  pro- 
portions between  1830  and  1875.  Soon  after  the  latter  date  a 
leaf  blight  caused  by  Hemileia  vastatrix  appeared  and  rapidly 
destroyed  the  whole  coffee  industry  in  Ceylon  and  India.  The 
immense  areas  devoted  to  coffee  wrere  then  gradually  planted 
in  tea  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  present  huge  tea 
industry  of  India  and  Ceylon. 

Coffee  was  brought  to  the  West  Indies  in  1720  and  to  Rio 
de  Janeiro  in  1770.  The  relative  commercial  rank  of  different 
countries  in  coffee  production  has  undergone  many  changes 
and  fluctuations  since  the  time  when  the  whole  supply  of  coffee 
came  from  Arabia  and  Abyssinia.  At  present  the  total  area 
devoted  to  the  production  of  coffee  is  about  5,000,000  acres, 
of  which  Brazil  has  3,300,000.  The  world's  production  of 
coffee  is  about  2,500,000,000  pounds  annually,  of  which  Brazil 
produces  1,750,000,000  pounds.  From  the  standpoint  of  the 
amount  of  coffee  exported,  coffee-producing  countries  stand  in 
the  following  order:  Brazil,  Venezuela,  Colombia,  Guatemala, 
Salvador,  Haiti,  Mexiqo,  Java,  Porto  Rico,  etc. 

Coffee  extends  about  25°  north  and  south  of  the  Equator 
and  from  near  sea  level  to  an  altitude  of  6,000  feet.  The 
plant  thrives  best,  however,  at  altitudes  between  500  and 
5,000  feet.  Coffee  will  endure  a  quite  heavy  rainfall  but  does 
not  thrive  satisfactorily  where  the  annual  rainfall  is  less  than 
50  inches.  The  extremes  of  rainfall  between  which  coffee 
may  be  said  to  grow  most  satisfactorily  are  50  and  200  inches. 

Coffee  is  planted  either  directly  in  place  in  the  field  or  in 
nurseries  from  which  seedlings  are  later  removed  for  planting. 
Young  seedlings  in  the  nursery  bed  require  some  shade  for 
their  best  development  and  are  usually  seasoned  by  removing 
to  half  shade  for  a  short  time  before  planting  in  the  field. 


66  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

More  frequently  shade  is  furnished  the  young  plants  in  the 
field  until  they  become  thoroughly  established.  The  planting 
distance  for  coffee  trees  varies  from  6  by  6  to  12  by  12  feet, 
according  to  variety,  locality,  and  opinion  of  various  planters. 
Coffee  trees  left  to  themselves  will  attain  a  height  of  30  or 
40  feet.  The  trees  are  usually  topped  off  at  about  6  to  15 
feet.  This  operation  not  only  keeps  the  tree  from  growing  out 
of  reach  of  the  coffee  pickers  but  seems  to  have  the  effect  of 
increasing  the  bearing  of  the  vigorous  lateral  branches. 

Coffee  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  agricultural 
crops.  The  dark,  glossy  green  leaves,  thickly  scattered  along 
the  horizontal  branches,  are  always  an  attractive  sight  and 
when  the  great  profusion  of  white  flowers  appears  upon  the 
upper  surface  of  these  branches  the  trees  somewhat  resemble 
the  holly  in  a  snow  storm.  Later,  when  the  red  cherries  ap- 
pear, the  coffee  tree  is  also  a  very  attractive  sight.  The  coffee 
tree  begins  bearing  at  from  2  to  5  years.  The  bearing  age 
occurs  somewhat  earlier  in  Asiatic  countries  than  in  Brazil. 
The  full  mature  crop  does  not  occur  until  about  7  to  10 
years.  Under  ordinary  conditions  the  limit  of  profitable  bear- 
ing age  of  coffee  is  about  30  years.  The  yield  varies  enor- 
mously in  different  countries  and  in  different  localities.  Under 
favorable  conditions  the  yield  of.  dried  coffee  per  acre  ranges 
from  500  to  1,200  pounds.  It  may  ordinarily  be  considered 
that  I  to  i}/2  pounds  of  dry  coffee  per  tree  is  a  satisfactory 
yield. 

The  crimson  fruit  of  the  coffee  is  known  as  the  coffee  cherry 
and  the  seed  as  the  coffee  berry.  From  a  botanical  standpoint 
the  fruit  itself  is  a  berry,  but  the  trade  names  cherry  and 
berry  have  become  very  firmly  established  and  are  so  generally 
well  known  that  there  seems  little  reason  for  attempting  to 
change  the  terminology.  The  cherries  are  pulped  as  soon  as 
they  are  brought  in  from  the  field  by  the  pickers.  Numerous 
improvements  have  been  made  since  the  days  of  hand-pulping, 
until  at  present  very  efficient  pulping  machines  are  in  use  on 


COFFEE  TREE  IN  BLOOM  IN    COSTA  RICA 


BEVERAGES  67 

all  coffee  plantations.  The  mucilaginous  material  left  around 
the  berries  after  the  removal  of  the  pulp  is  in  turn  removed 
by  fermentation  or  soaking  in  water  for  a  few  hours.  The 
berries  are  then  dried  in  the  parchment.  The  term  parchment 
is  applied  to  the  tough,  leathery  skin  surrounding  the  coffee 
berry.  Inside  of  the  tough  parchment  is  a  very  thin,  filmy 
layer  of  tissue  closely  adhering  to  the  coffee  berry  and  known 
as  the  silver  skin.  The  parchment  and  silver  skin  are  re- 
moved by  coffee  hulling  machines  and  the  berries  are  then 
thoroughly  cleaned  by  winnowing.  Coffee  may  be  handled 
and  sold  either  in  the  parchment  or  after  hulling.  For  the 
most  part,  however,  coffee  is  hulled  before  being  shipped  for 
the  reason  that  hulling  removes  some  of  the  useless  material 
and  makes  a  saving  in  freight. 

In  the  process  of  roasting,  coffee  loses  from  15  to  20  per 
cent,  in  weight  and  gains  from  30  to  50  per  cent,  in  bulk  ac- 
cording to  the  degree  or  extent  of  roasting.  Roasted  coffee 
has  the  following  average  composition:  Water,  i.i  per  cent.; 
protein,  14  per  cent,  (including  1.2  per  cent,  caffein)  ;  fat, 
14.5  per  cent.;  nitrogen-free  extract,  45.8  per  cent.;  fiber,  19.9 
per  cent. ;  and  ash,  4.7  per  cent.  About  25  per  cent,  of  the 
total  solids  in  coffee  is  soluble  in  water. 

The  temperature  used  in  roasting  coffee  and  the  length  of 
the  roasting  period  vary  somewhat  in  different  countries  and 
in  different  grades  of  coffee.  All  coffee  users  who  buy  the 
unground  roasted  berry  are  familiar  with  the  different  shades 
of  brown  which  are  characteristic  of  different  brands  and 
grades  of  coffee.  These  browns  range  from  almost  black  to  an 
extremely  light  shade  of  brown.  It  has  been  found  by  experi- 
ence that  in  order  to  bring  out  the  best  flavor  and  aroma  dif- 
ferent lengths  of  time  are  required  for  roasting  different  grades 
of  coffee.  Some  require  to  be  roasted  nearly  black,  while 
others,  particularly  Hawaiian  coffee,  would  be  nearly  ruined 
by  overroasting. 

In  the  amount  of  coffee  consumed,  some  of  the  most  im- 


68  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

portant  coffee-drinking  countries  stand  in  the  following  order : 
United  States,  Germany,  France,  Austria-Hungary,  Italy, 
Switzerland,  Norway,  Russia,  etc.  The  wholesale  prices  in 
New  York  for  coffee  of  different  grades  in  the  last  15  years 
has  ranged  from  6%  to  30  cents  per  pound.  For  many  years 
the  coffee  market  was  so  manipulated  that  a  surprisingly  large 
margin  uniformly  existed  between  the  wholesale  and  retail 
price.  The  trade  sorts  of  coffee  from  Brazil  are  commonly 
called  Rio  Nos.  1-9.  From  Venezuela  we  receive  grades  of 
coffee  called  La  Guiara  and  Maracaibo,  while  coffees  from 
Bolivia  are  commonly  called  Yungas,  and  from  Hawaii,  Kona 
and  Hamakua.  Mocha  is  a  trade  name  applied  to  a  pea  berry 
coffee  grown  in  various  countries.  It  is  obvious  from  this 
statement  that  the  term  Mocha  does  not  in  any  sense  indicate, 
that  the  coffee  came  from  Mocha,  Arabia.  Pea  berry  is  a 
term  applied  to  a  round-berried  coffee  obtained  from  cherries 
which  produced  only  one  berry.  The  ordinary  coffee  berry, 
as  all  coffee  users  know,  has  one  flat  side  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  ordinary  coffee  cherry  contains  two  berries  closely  pressed 
together.  Whenever  the  cherry  contains  only  one  berry  that 
berry  shows  no  flat  side  and  is  rounded  somewhat  in  the  form 
of  a  pea,  thus  giving  occasion  to  the  name,  pea  berry  coffee. 
Java  coffee  is  a  trade  name  for  coffee  like  the  typical  brand 
which  is  found  in  Java.  From  Ceylon  we  obtain  Native 
Plantation,  Liberian,  and  Mountain  coffees  and  the  coffees 
which  enter  into  trade  from  Abyssinia  are  called  Harrar  and 
Abyssinian.  In  addition  to  these  few  trade  names  there  are 
also  dozens  of  geographical  names  of  various  brands  of  coffee, 
while  the  trade  names  for  coffee  as  a  whole  are  almost  in- 
numerable. Most  coffees,  like  teas,  are  not  composed  of  one 
strain  but  are  blended  by  the  use  of  coffees  from  several 
localities. 

The  Liberian  coffee  is  a  considerably  larger  tree  with  larger 
leaves,  much  larger  cherries,  and  a  firmer  pulp.  This  coffee  has 
a  poor  aroma  but  is  more  resistant  to  the  devastating  leaf 


BEVERAGES  69 

blight  and  is  therefore  cultivated  to  some  extent  in  Java,  Cey- 
lon, and  elsewhere.  The  Liberian  coffee  thrives  at  lower 
elevations  than  the  common  varieties  of  Arabian  coffee.  Cof- 
fca  robusta  is  another  species  of  coffee  which  has  recently 
come  into  some  prominence  as  a  rival  of  the  Arabian  and 
Liberian  coffees  for  certain  purposes.  This  species  grows 
faster  than  the  Liberian  coffee  and  the  leaves  are  thinner. 
Moreover,  the  branches  have  a  more  decided  habit  of  drooping 
and  the  cherries  occur  in  larger  clusters.  The  cherries  are 
smaller  than  is  the  case  with  the  Liberian  coffee  but  the  ber- 
ries are  about  the  same  size.  This  species  flowers  the  year 
round,  is  decidedly  resistant  to  leaf  blight,  and  the  aroma  is 
much  better  than  that  of  the  Liberian  coffee.  In  Java,  there 
are  at  present  about  15,000  acres  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of 
Liberian  coffee.  Sierra  Leone  coffee  (Coffea  stenophylla) 
was  introduced  into  Ceylon  in  1894.  This  species  develops 
black  cherries  instead  of  the  usual  crimson  cherries  and  pos- 
sesses an  excellent  aroma.  Coffea  excelsa  is  also  under  ex- 
periment in  various  coffee-producing  countries,  but  its  value 
has  thus  far  not  been  established. 

The  coffee  industry  of  the  United  States  is  largely  confined 
to  Porto  Rico  and  Hawaii.  Porto  Rico  exports  coffee  to  the 
value  of  about  $8,500,000  annually  and  the  industry  is  showing 
quite  rapid  progress.  The  improvement  of  the  coffee  industry 
of  Porto  Rico  is  due  to  better  cultivation,  higher  prices,  and 
the  use  of  superior  varieties.  Little  demand  has  been  created 
in  the  United  States  for  Porto  Rican  coffee,  and  practically 
all  of  it  is  sold  in  foreign  countries.  The  export  of  Hawaiian 
coffee  amounts  to  about  25,000  bags  annually,  with  a  value  of 
$175,000.  The  prevailing  prices  for  Hawaiian  coffee  have 
been  relatively  high  in  recent  years,  reaching  18  to  20  cents 
per  pound  wholesale.  The  prospects  for  the  coffee  industry 
in  Hawaii  are  brighter  than  has  been  the  case  in  former  years. 
The  Army  has  adopted  Hawaiian  coffee  for  use  in  Hawaii  and 
the  Philippines. 


70  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

TEA 

Tea  is  a  beverage  which  ranks  second  only  to  coffee  in 
commercial  importance  and,  in  fact,  is  used  in  many  countries 
far  more  extensively  than  coffee.  The  tea  plant  is  called 
Camellia  thea  and  the  variety  name  viridis  is  used  for  Assam 
tea  and  the  name  bohea  for  China  tea.  The  tea  plant  is  a 
native  of  China,  Japan,  and  India.  The  China  tea  is  a  low 
bush,  while  the  Assam  tea  is  taller,  reaching  even  a  height  of 
40  feet  and  becoming  a  tree  of  large  proportions  if  unpruned 
and  left  to  itself.  Tea  has  been  cultivated  in  China  and  Japan 
since  the  dawn  of  history  and  in  India  since  1875.  At  that 
date  the  seriousness  of  the  leaf  blight  of  coffee  had  become 
apparent  and  the  coffee  growers  began  to  experiment  with 
tea.  These  experiments  rapidly  led  to  the  general  adoption 
of  tea  as  a  crop  for  replacing  coffee  in  India  and  Ceylon. 

Tea  requires  a  heavy  rainfall  for  its  most  vigorous  growth. 
It  thrives  best  in  a  rainfall  of  90  to  200  inches.  The  Assam 
tea  does  best  at  low  altitudes,  while  China  tea  gives  satisfac- 
tory results  at  elevations  up  to  5,000  feet. 

Tea  is  propagated  from  seed  planted  either  directly  in  the 
field  or  in  seed  beds  from  which  the  seedlings  are  later  trans- 
planted in  the  field  at  distances  of  4  by  4  or  5  by  5  feet.  In 
commercial  plantations  tea  is  usually  prevented  from  growing 
more  than  5  feet  high  by  repeated  pruning.  The  first  picking 
takes  place  about  3  years  from  the  time  of  planting  the  seed 
and  full  bearing  begins  when  the  plants  are  about  6  years  old. 
The  crop  of  leaves  continues  unabated  for  50  years  or  more. 
In  fact,  by  means  of  severe  pruning  after  a  plantation  has  ap- 
parently almost  run  out,  a  renewed  vigor  may  be  reestablished 
for  a  considerably  longer  period. 

The  yield  of  tea  ranges  from  200  to  1,000  pounds  of 'cured 
leaves  per  acre,  according  to  the  number  of  flushes,  the  nature 
of  the  soil,  the  variety  of  tea,  and  the  locality  in  which  it  is 
grown.  In  Ceylon,  there  are  about  400,000  acres  devoted  to 


TEA  HEDGES  IN   YEN  DO,  JAPAN 


S 

FIELD   OF   SMOOTH    CAYENNE    PINEAPPLES    IN    HAWAII 


BEVERAGES  71 

the  production  of  tea  and  the  exports  from  that  country 
amount  to  190,000,000  pounds  of  black  tea  annually.  The 
total  exports  of  tea  from  tea-producing  countries  are  about 
810,000,000  pounds  per  year.  Tea-producing  countries  stand 
in  the  following  order  from  the  standpoint  of  the  amount 
of  tea  produced:  British  India,  Ceylon,  China,  Dutch  East 
Indies,  Formosa,  Japan,  and  Singapore. 

Tea  leaves  are  picked  from  10  to  25  times  a  year.  In 
Ceylon  a  picking  occurs  every  10  to  12  days.  Tea,  like  many 
other  tropical  plants,  shows  at  intervals  an  unusually  vigorous 
growth  in  which  fresh  leaves  are  developed  very  rapidly. 
These  periods  of  unusually  active  growth  are  known  as  flushes. 
For  the  highest  grades  of  tea  only  the  tip  of  the  actively  grow- 
ing shoot  and  one  or  two  of  the  youngest  leaves  are  plucked. 
A  few  older  and  coarser  leaves  go  into  the  cheaper  grades. 
The  tea  leaves  are  brought  from  the  field  by  pickers  and  at 
once  undergo  a  withering  process  in  the  sun,  in  open  sheds,  or 
under  the  influence  of  low  artificial  heat  for  a  period  of  about 
1 8  hours.  The  leaves  are  then  rolled  by  hand  or  by  machine, 
after  which  they  are  fermented  in  piles  or  in  drawers  for  a 
period  of  2  to  10  hours.  The  piles  of  tea  are  covered  with 
a  clean  cloth  wrung  out  in  cold  water.  The  appearance  of  a 
coppery  yellow  color  in  the  leaves  and  the  characteristic  aroma 
indicate  the  time  to  stop  the  process  of  fermentation.  The 
tea  then  goes  at  once  into  the  drying  or  firing  machines,  where 
the  leaves  are  completely  dried  by  currents  of  hot  air.  The 
process  just  described  produces  black  tea. 

Fermentation  of  the  leaves  is  carefully  avoided  in  making 
green  tea.  The  fresh  leaves  on  being  brought  in  from  the 
field  are  at  once  heated  in  a  pan  or  are  steamed  until  they  wilt 
and  are  then  put  immediately  into  the  drier.  This  process 
effectively  prevents  fermentation  and  consequently  prevents 
the  development  of  the  dark  color  characteristic  of  black  tea. 
Green  teas,  however,  are  not  all  green  in  color.  In  fact,  they 
have  no  uniform  color.  Green  teas  usually  show  a  gray  or 


72  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

brown  as  well  as  a  green  color.  On  account  of  the  lack  of 
uniformity  in  the  color  of  green  teas  it  was  formerly  a  widely 
prevalent  custom  to  color  green  teas  artificially  with  soap- 
stone,  turmeric,  gypsum,  indigo,  and  other  materials.  This 
process  was  sometimes  called  facing  the  tea  leaves. 

China  produces  both  green  and  black  tea,  while  Ceylon 
tea  is  almost  all  of  the  black  sort.  Oolong  tea  from  Formosa 
is  manufactured  like  green  tea,  except  that  it  is  allowed  to 
ferment  only  slightly.  Oolong  tea  therefore  has  the  appear- 
ance of  black  tea  and  flavor  of  green  tea.  The  Japanese 
manufacture  two  chief  grades  of  green  tea  known  as  gyokuro 
and  sencha  and  also  a  low-grade  tea  from  old  leaves  known  as 
bancha. 

As  already  indicated,  the  highest  grades  of  both  black  and 
green  teas  are  prepared  from  the  terminal  bud  and  the  young- 
est leaves.  In  the  order  of  quality,  the  grades  of  black  tea 
from  Ceylon  and  British  India  run  as  follows :  Orange  Pekoe, 
Pekoe,  Pekoe-souchong,  Souchong,  Congou,  and  Dust.  The 
green  teas  from  China  are  commonly  graded  in  the  order  of 
their  quality  as  follows:  Young  Hyson,  Hyson  No.  I,  Hyson 
No.  2,  Gunpowder,  and  Dust.  Nearly  all  of  these  trade  names 
are  common  Chinese  words  derived  from  the  tea  industry. 
The  young  flushing  leaves  of  tea  are  covered  with  a  fine  gray 
pubescence  which  turns  to  an  orange  color  during  the  process 
of  curing.  This  pubescence  is  partly  rubbed  off  the  leaves 
during  the  process  of  handling  but  is  sufficiently  evident  to 
give  the  term  Orange  Pekoe  to  a  high-grade  Pekoe  tea.  The 
presence  of  the  pubescence  in  the  tea  is  taken  as  an  evidence 
of  the  fact  that  the  tea  is  made  of  the  youngest  leaves.  Brick 
tea,  as  made  in  China,  is  of  two  forms :  That  which  is  com- 
monly used  in  Tibet  is  made  of  old  leaves  and  twigs  with  a 
glutinous  substance  added,  while  the  Brick  tea  used  in  Russia 
is  ordinary  Dust  tea  pressed  into  bricks. 

In  the  list  given  above  of  tea-producing  countries  mentioned 
in  the  order  of  their  importance  only  a  few  countries  of  great- 


BEVERAGES  73 

est  importance  as  sources  of  tea  were  given.  Tea  is  also  a 
commercial  product  in  Natal,  the  Caucasus,  Jamaica,  Fiji, 
Java,  the  Andamans,  Tonquin,  Burma,  etc.  The  importation 
of  tea  into  the  United  States  has  fallen  from  102,653,000 
pounds  in  1911  to  97,800,000  pounds  in  1914.  In  the  amount 
of  their  tea  imports  the  first  three  countries  are  Great  Britain, 
Russia,  and  the  United  States,  in  the  order  named. 

The  United  States  has  taken  little  part  in  the  business  of 
producing  tea.  It  has  been  grown  experimentally  at  Pine- 
hurst,  South  Carolina,  and  also  in  Hawaii.  It  is  impossible, 
however,  for  us  to  compete  with  the  cheap  labor  of  China 
and  India.  While  the  planting  and  cultivation  of  tea  requires 
no  more  hand  labor  than  is  customarily  applied  to  fruit  crops, 
the  picking  of  the  leaves  is  a  tedious  process  of  hand  labor 
which  would  make  the  cost  of  production  disproportionately 
high,  except  where  labor  is  very  cheap.  From  statistics 
prepared  in  recent  years  by  tea  companies  in  Ceylon,  it  ap- 
pears that  the  cost  of  production,  plus  the  freight  to  London, 
is  8  to  14  cents  per  pound  of  tea.  The  wholesale  prices  of 
tea  in  New  York  in  the  past  10  years  have  ranged  from  12 
to  39  cents  per  pound.  This  indicates  only  a  narrow  margin 
between  the  cost  of  production  and  wholesale  price  and  shows 
quite  clearly  that  any  considerable  increase  in  the  cost  of 
hand  labor  would  necessarily  involve  an  increase  in  the  whole- 
sale price  of  tea  in  order  to  keep  the  industry  in  a  prosperous 
condition. 

CACAO 

The  cacao  tree,  being  a  native  of  the  American  Continent, 
was  not  known  to  the  European  world  until  sometime  after 
the  discovery  of  America.  As  compared  with  tea  and  coffee, 
its  history  as  a  commercial  beverage  is  therefore  relatively 
short.  The  importance  of  cocoa  and  chocolate,  the  two  chief 
trade  products  derived  from  cacao  is,  however,  increasing  from 
year  to  year. 


74  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

.  Cacao,  known  botanically  as  Theobroma  cacao,  is  a  native  of 
the  regions  along  the  Orinoco  and  Amazon  and  of  Central 
America.  The  tree  normally  attains  a  height  of  15  to  40  feet. 
It  bears  large,  oblong,  rather  thin,  shiny  leaves  and  large  pods 
6  to  9  inches  long  of  a  red-gray  or  yellow  color  when  ripe. 
JPhe  pods  are  ridged  lengthwise  and  are  variously  covered  with 
wartlike  protuberances.  Each  pod  contains  from  20  to  45 
large  seeds,  or  cacao  beans,  closely  packed  in  a  gelatinous  mass. 
The  pods  are  borne,  for  the  most  part,  along  the  trunk  of  the 
tree  or  on  the  sides  of  the  large  branches. 

The  cacao  tree  is  considerably  injured  by  temperatures 
below  60°  F.  It  therefore  does  not  thrive  beyond  20°  north 
or  south  of  the  Equator.  The  cultural  requirements  for 
cacao  are  very  similar  to  those  for  coffee,  but  it  must  always 
be  remembered  that  cacao  is  more  sensitive  to  cold,  drought, 
and  wind.  The  rainfall  requirement  for  cacao  depends  much 
upon  the  drainage  and  the  physics  of  the  soil.  The  limits  of 
rainfall  for  good  vigorous  growth  of  cacao  lie  perhaps  between 
60  and  190  inches  per  year.  It  is  often  stated  that  for  the 
vigorous  development  of  cacao  the  soil  must  contain  an  ample 
supply  of  potash  and  nitrogen  and  a  medium  amount  of  phos- 
phoric acid.  This,  however,  is  little  more  than  a  guess  since 
few  experiments  have  been  carried  out  with  fertilizers  in  the 
production  of  cacao.  The  tree  is  quite  tolerant  of  salt  and 
will  grow  even  in  brackish  soil. 

The  pod  husks  constitute  79  per  cent,  of  the  weight  of  the 
whole  pod,  while  the  seeds  together  with  the  pulp  make  up  the 
remaining  21  per  cent.  An  analysis  of  fresh  cacao  beans  will 
show  a  water  content  of  37.6  per  cent. ;  proteids,  7.2  per  cent. ; 
theobromin,  1.4  per  cent.;  caffein,  o.i  per  cent.;  fat,  29.3  per 
cent;  glucose,  I  per  cent.;  starch,  3.8  per  cent;  fiber,  8.1  per 
cent. ;  cocoa  red,  pectin,  and  astringent  matters,  8.7  per  cent. ; 
tartaric  acid,  0.6  per  cent.,  and  ash,  2.35  per  cent.  During 
the  process  of  fermentation  cocoa  red,  the  coloring  matter  of 
cocoa  and  theobromin,  the  stimulant  constituent  of  cocoa,  are 


TRUNK  OF  CACAO  TREE   BEARING  RIPE  PODS 


BEVERAGES  75 

probably  formed  by  the  oxidation  of  a  glucosid.  At  the  same 
time,  the  essential  aromatic  oil  appears  and  the  bitterness  dis- 
appears. The  fermented  and  dried  bean  contains  6.3  per  cent, 
water,  52.1  per  cent,  fat,  6.1  per  cent,  proteids,  6.8  per  cent, 
carbohydrates,  1.7  per  cent,  theobromin,  6.3  per  cent,  cocoa 
red  and  astringent  matters,  1.8  per  cent,  ash,  and  18.9  per  cent, 
cellulose.  It  is  apparent  from  these  figures  that  one-half  the 
dry  cacao  bean  is  made  up  of  cocoa  fat  or  cocoa  butter,  which 
is  extensively  used  in  making  chocolate,  perfumes,  and  many 
pharmaceutical  preparations.  Cocoa  fat  is  a  yellowish-white 
fat  with  a  melting  point  of  35°  C. 

About  20  species  of  Theobroma  are  known,  of  which  T. 
cacao  and  T.  pentagona  (usually  considered  a  variety  of  T. 
cacao)  are  grown  commercially.  The  cacao  tree  reaches  full 
growth  at  10  to  12  years.  The  red-fruited  varieties  have 
darker  leaves,  and  the  flowers  and  fruit  are  borne  on  the  trunk 
or  large  branches  as  indicated  above.  There  are  three  prin- 
cipal groups  of  the  varieties  of  cacao,  Criollo,  Forastero,  and 
Calabacillo.  The  Criollo  group  is  quite  superior  in  quality. 
The  wall  of  the  pod  is  soft  and  the  round  white  beans  are 
only  slightly  bitter.  The  Forastero  group  has  a  much  harder 
pod  and  flat  violet-colored  beans.  The  Criollo  varieties  came 
originally  from  Venezuela,  but  are  now  cultivated  in  many 
tropical  countries.  A  very  smooth  fruited  subvariety  of  the 
Criollo  group  is  known  under  the  name  Porcelaine.  The  For- 
astero group  of  cacaos  is  more  variable.  The  fruit  is  usually 
yellow  and  the  trees  are  more  hardy  than  those  of  the  Criollo 
group.  The  Forastero  cacao,  therefore,  seems  to  be  gradually 
taking  the  place  of  the  better  varieties  even  in  Venezuela. 

For  cacao  plantations  openings  in  forest  or  areas  protected 
by  windbreaks  are  commonly  selected.  Perhaps  the  best  shade 
for  the  first  three  years  of  growth  can  be  obtained  by  inter- 
planting  with  bananas,  cassava,  or  pigeon  peas.  The  usual 
planting  distance  for  cacao  is  9  to  20  feet  apart  both  ways 
with  perhaps  15  by  15  feet  as  the  average  spacing.  In  certain 


76  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

localities  permanent  shade  has  been  used  with  success.  For 
this  purpose  kapok,  castilloa,  hevea,  coffee,  etc.,  have  served 
excellently  well.  The  idea  underlying  this  interplanting  of 
cacao  with  other  trees  is  to  arrange  the  plantation  in  such  a 
manner  that  at  full  growth  the  cacao  will  utilize  all  the  space. 
The  cacao  beans  are  planted  either  in  nurseries  or  directly  in 
place  in  the  field.  The  advantages  are  rather  in  favor  of  plant- 
ing in  nurseries  and  in  transplanting  the  seedlings  for  the  rea- 
son that  the  young  trees  are  more  easily  cared  for  during  their 
first  year  of  growth  when^close  together  in  a  well  protected 
nursery  than  when  planted  at  the  usual  spacing  in  the  open 
field.  Budwood  of  superior  varieties  may  be  used  for  top- 
working  old  trees  or  inarching  may  be  practiced  with  good 
success.  These  methods,  however,  have  not  come  into  use  on 
commercial  plantations.  In  a  few  instances  grafted  trees  have 
borne  as  high  as  30  pods  each  2^  years  after  grafting.  The 
permanent  shade  trees  which  are  most  commonly  used  for 
cacao  are  leguminous.  Cacao  is  grown,  however,  without 
shade  in  Brazil,  Grenada,  St.  Thomas,  and  several  other  locali- 
ties. If,  however,  leguminous  shade  trees  are  not  used  good 
tillage  is  required,  otherwise  profitable  yields  may  not  be  ob- 
tained. Little  systematic  work  has  been  done  with  fertilizers 
in  the  growth  of  cacao  trees.  In  Dominica  the  best  yields  have 
been  obtained  from  the  use  of  mulch  of  leaves  and  grass.  In 
pruning  cacao,  it  has  been  found  best  to  remove  all  suckers 
and  diseased  branches.  In  a  few  instances  one  sucker  has 
been  left  near  the  base  of  the  trunk,  but  this  has  proved  to  be 
a  wrong  practice.  The  removal  and  burning  of  dead  branches, 
twigs,  and  diseased  pods  help  greatly  to  prevent  the  spread  of 
cacao  diseases. 

Pods  when  ripe  are  removed  with  a  knife  or  hook,  leaving 
a  clean  wound.  The  pods  are  then  gathered  and  opened  the 
same  day  or  within  three  days  at  the  outside.  The  contents 
of  the  pods  are  removed  at  once  to  the  fermentation  house. 
The  cacao  tree  begins  to  bear  at  3  or  4  years  of  age,  and 


BEVERAGES  77 

the  full  yield  is  reached  at  about  7  or  8  years.  The  maximum 
yield  occurs  perhaps  at  about  12  years  of  age.  The  Criollo 
varieties,  however,  begin  bearing  at  5  years.  The  yield  of 
cacao  ranges  from  100  to  nearly  1,000  pounds  per  acre  and 
500  pounds  may  be  considered  a  good  acre  return.  Individual 
trees  sometimes  bear  as  many  as  400  pods,  but  an  average  of 
50  pods  per  trees  is  satisfactory.  It  requires  about  15  pods  to 
make  one  pound  of  cocoa. 

The  fresh  cacao  beans  as  they  are  removed  from  the  pod 
are  large,  somewhat  flattened  seeds  about  ^4  inch  in  width. 
They  are  of  an  ivory  white  or  delicate  violet  color.  The  beans 
are  at  once  placed  in  boxes  and  covered  with  banana  leaves  or 
other  suitable  material.  The  boxes  used  for  this  purpose  are 
of  such  size  as  to  allow  the  beans  to  be  packed  in  to  a  depth  of 
6  or  7  feet.  While  held  in  these  boxes  the  beans  undergo  a 
process  of  heating  and  of  fermentation.  They  are  transferred 
daily  into  other  boxes  for  a  period  of  4  to  6  days  in  order  to 
equalize  the  temperature  throughout  the  mass  of  beans.  Dur- 
ing this  process  the  slimy  pulp  around  the  beans  ferments  into 
a  vinegar-like  liquid  and  flows  away.  During  the  process,  also, 
the  red  color  and  the  characteristic  aroma  develop  in  the  beans. 
The  fermentation  process  with  cacao  beans  is,  however,  not 
adopted  in  all  countries.  In  Ecuador,  the  beans  are  not  fer- 
mented at  all  and  are  dried  at  once  and  packed  for  shipment. 
On  some  plantations  the  beans  are  washed  after  fermentation, 
but  washing  is  hardly  to  be  recommended  since  the  beans  lose 
flavor  in  this  process.  After  fermentation,  beans  are  dried 
in  the  sun  or  in  an  artificial  drying  apparatus.  On  account  of 
the  trade  demand  for  a  rich  red  color  in  cacao  beans,  this 
color  has  been  given  to  the  beans  on  some  plantations  by 
the  process  called  dancing  and  claying.  In  this  process  a 
small  quantity  of  clay  of  a  rich  red  color  is  sprinkled  over 
the  beans,  after  which  the  beans  are  trampled  by  the  bare  feet 
of  natives. 

Loss  of  weight  in  fermenting  and  drying  cacao  beans  is 


78  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

about  60  per  cent.  This  gives  a  means  of  estimating  the  ap- 
proximate weight  of  the  cured  crop  from  the  weight  of  the 
fresh  beans.  The  brands  of  cacao  which  come  into  the  market 
from  Ecuador  are  commonly  known  as  Balao,  Arriba,  Mach- 
ala,  Manabi,  and  Esmeraldas.  From  Brazil  we  receive  brands 
of  cacao  known  as  Bahia  and  Para,  and  from  Venezuela  come 
the  Caracas,  Maracaibo,  and  Cabello  cocoas.  The  most  impor- 
tant cocoa  markets  are  Hamburg,  Havre,  London,  Amsterdam, 
Lisbon,  and  New  York.  The  wholesale  Hamburg  price  for 
cocoa  ranges  from  12  to  24  cents  per  pound  for  various  sorts 
of  this  product. 

The  similarity  in  names  in  a  number  of  tropical  agricultural 
products  has  led  to  much  confusion  in  the  minds  of  readers 
not  intimately  acquainted  with  the  Tropics.  It  may  be  well, 
therefore,  to  call  attention  to  some  of  these  terms  which  have 
caused  confusion,  particularly  in  connection  with  cacao  prod- 
ucts. It  should  perhaps  first  be  mentioned  that  cocoa  butter 
is  the  fat  of  cacao  bean  and,  therefore,  differs  utterly  from 
coconut  butter,  a  product  manufactured  from  coconut  oil.  It 
is  unfortunate  that  coconut  has  been  frequently  spelled  cocoa- 
nut,  thus  causing  further  confusion  with  cocoa,  one  of  the 
products  manufactured  from  the  cacao  bean.  The  confusion 
has  been  worse  confounded  by  the  fact  that  the  specific  botani- 
cal name  of  cocain  is  coca  and  that  kola  nuts  have  been  spelled 
indifferently  cola  and  kola.  The  tree  from  which  cocoa  and 
chocolate  are  derived  is  properly  known  as  cacao  and  the  beans 
produced  by  the  tree  are  usually  known  as  cacao  beans, 
although  occasionally  they  are  also  called  cocoa  beans.  There 
has  also  been  considerable  looseness  in  the  use  of  the  terms 
cocoa  and  chocolate.  In  preparing  cocoa  powder  for  use  in 
manufacturing  cocoa  for  drinking,  a  considerable  part  of  the 
cocoa  fat  is  removed  by  hydraulic  pressure  and  the  residue  is 
treated  with  carbonates  to  produce  a  better  suspension  in 
water.  Cocoa,  as  properly  used,  therefore  means  the  ground 
mass  obtained  from  the  fermented  and  roasted  cacao  bean  after 


BEVERAGES  79 

the  removal  of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  fat  naturally  con- 
tained in  the  bean. 

In  manufacturing  cocoa  and  chocolate,  the  dried  beans  are 
roasted  at  a  temperature  of  250°  to  275°  F.  for  a  short  time  in 
rotary  drums.  The  beans  are  then  cracked  and  the  skins  re- 
moved by  an  air  blast,  after  which  the  beans  are  ground  into 
cocoa  powder.  Sweet  chocolate  consists  of  cocoa  powder  to 
which  are  added  sugar,  spices,  starch,  flavors,  and  other  adul- 
terants. Chocolate,  whether  of  the  sweet  or  bitter  sort,  there- 
fore, contains  all  of  the  cocoa  fat  originally  present  in  the 
bean.  Plain  or  bitter  chocolate  is  the  firm  mass  obtained  by 
grinding  the  fermented  and  roasted  bean  without  removing 
any  of  the  fat.  Bitter  chocolate  is,  therefore,  merely  the  ground 
cacao  bean  without  any  further  alteration,  either  by  removal  of 
the  fat  or  by  the  addition  of  other  substances,  while  cocoa  is 
the  original  cocoa  powder  from  which  a  part  of  the  fat  has 
been  removed  by  pressure. 

The  total  exports  of  cacao  beans  from  producing  countries 
are  about  260,000  tons  annually.  Of  this  amount  the  Gold 
Coast  exports  65,500  tons,  while  other  producing  countries 
range  in  the  following  order :  Ecuador,  St.  Thomas,  Nigeria, 
Brazil,  Trinidad,  Dominican  Republic,  Venezuela,  Grenada, 
Lagos,  Ceylon,  etc. 

In  territory  belonging  to  the  United  States,  cacao  is  grown 
to  some  extent  in  Porto  Rico  and  the  Philippines  and  experi- 
ments have  also  been  made  with  cacao  in  Hawaii.  Conditions 
for  the  growth  of  cacao  seem  to  be  quite  favorable  in  Porto 
Rico  and  the  Philippines.  In  Hawaii,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
is  little  basis  for  a  cacao  industry  for  the  reason  that  the 
continued  prevalence  of  the  trade  winds  appears  to  increase 
transpiration  from  the  leaves  to  such  an  extent  that  they  are 
unduly  chilled  and  turn  brown  along  the  edges.  The  growth 
of  cacao  in  Hawaii  has  not  been  satisfactory  from  a  commer- 
cial standpoint,  although  an  excellent  quality  of  cacao  has  been 
produced  in  the  neighborhood  of  Hilo. 


80  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 


Mate,  or  Paraguay  tea,  is  a  common  South  American  drink 
prepared  from  the  leaves  of  Ilex  paraguayensis.  This  is  a 
common  bush  in  South  America  occurring  in  particular  abun- 
dance in  Brazil  and  Paraguay.  The  leaves  of  the  bush  are  3 
to  4  inches  long,  serrate,  and  somewhat  resemble  tea  leaves. 
The  crop  is  taken  largely  from  wild  plants,  but  is  cultivated 
to  some  extent.  Like  coffee  and  tea,  the  beverage  contains 
some  caffein.  The  consumption  of  Paraguay  tea  in  South 
America  is  enormous  and  there  is  a  small  export  trade  with 
Europe.  Elsewhere  the  habit  of  drinking  Paraguay  tea  has 
not  taken  root. 

Brazil  is  the  chief  producing  country  and  exports  about  140,- 
000,000  pounds  of  mate  annually  to  Argentina.  Paraguay  ex- 
ports about  5,000,000  pounds  of  this  product  every  year.  In 
preparing  the  material,  young  twigs  are  cut  from  the  bushes 
and  thoroughly  dried  over  a  fire  of  aromatic  wood,  after 
which  the  dry  leaves  are  beaten  off,  ground  to  a  coarse  powder, 
and  packed  for  the  market.  There  are  three  recognized  grades 
of  mate,  the  caa-cuys  made  from  the  partly  expanded  leaf 
buds,  the  caa-miri  prepared  from  the  unroasted  leaf,  and  the 
caa-guaza  prepared  from  roasted  leaves  and  leaf  stalks. 

KOLA  NUTS 

The  seeds  of  Cola  acuminata  are  used  to  some  extent  in  the 
preparation  of  a  drink  which  carries  a  high  content  of  caffein. 
The  tree  is  a  native  of  West  Africa  from  Loango  to  Sene- 
gambia.  It  attains  a  height  of  20  to  40  feet  and  bears  warty 
pods  4  to  6  inches  long  with  4  to  10  white  or  pink  seeds,  which 
turn  brown  on  drying.  The  seeds  contain  about  2^  per  cent. 
of  caffein  and  some  theobromin  and  are  chewed  or  used  as  a 
beverage  for  the  stimulating  effect.  The  tree  begins  bearing 
at  the  age  of  about  6  or  7  years  and  yields  two  crops  annually, 


BEVERAGES  81 

amounting  in  all  from  500  to  700  pods,  or  about  75  pounds  of 
kola  nuts  per  tree.  The  planting  distance  for  the  kola  nut  is 
about  20  by  20  feet.  In  preparing  the  product  for  the  trade, 
the  pods  are  merely  removed  and  the  nuts  dried  in  the  sun. 
Considerable  effort  has  been  put  forth  to  extend  the  use  of 
the  kola  nuts  as  a  beverage.  Some  hesitation  must  be  felt, 
however,  in  recommending  the  use  of  such  material  on  account 
of  its  high  caffein  content.  In  Europe  the  kola  nut  has  been 
used  to  some  extent  with  cacao  in  making  a  beverage. 

GUARANA 

The  woody  climber,  known  as  Paullinia  sorbilis,  native  of 
South  America,  particularly  in  Brazil,  bears  seeds  which  are 
used  in  the  preparation  of  the  beverage  known  as  guarana. 
This  woody  climber  bears  flowers  in  axillary  panicles  and  an 
ovoid  fruit  about  the  size  of  the  grape,  ripening  its  seed  in 
October.  The  seeds  are  removed  from  the  hard  shell,  washed, 
roasted  about  6  hours,  and  then  removed  from  the  inside  pa- 
perlike  shells  by  beating.  In  preparing  the  beverage,  the  seeds 
are  ground,  moistened,  made  into  a  paste,  rolled  into  cylinders, 
and  dried.  This  material  is  then  used  in  producing  an  infusion 
which  is  consumed  as  a  beverage.  The  flavor  somewhat  re- 
sembles cocoa,  but  is  bitter.  The  beverage  is  occasionally  called 
Brazilian  cocoa.  It  is  used  only  in  South  America  and  chiefly 
by  the  Indians.  The  seeds  contain  about  4  per  cent,  of  caffein 
and  the  beverage  is  highly  stimulating. 


CHAPTER  IX 

FRUITS  AND   NUTS 

TROPICAL  fruits  are  gradually  becoming  more  familiar  ob- 
jects in  the  markets  of  the  United  States,  Citrus  fruits, 
bananas,  and  pineapples  have  for  years  been  of  nearly  as  gen- 
eral distribution  as  apples  and  peaches.  Pomegranates  and 
fresh  figs  are  to  be  seen  here  and  there  in  fruit  markets  and  on 
the  carts  of  the  street  venders.  Preserved  figs  and  dates  may 
be  obtained  in  any  grocery  store,  and  these  products  have  be- 
come a  part  of  the  ration  of  a  large  percentage  of  our  popula- 
tion. Occasionally,  mangos  and  avocados  make  their  way  to 
the  markets  of  larger  cities,  where  they  are  sold  mostly  as 
luxuries.  These  fruits  are  not  yet  produced  in  sufficient  quan- 
tity to  bring  the  market  price  down  below  the  level  of  luxuries. 
Avocados  sell  at  retail  for  prices  ranging  from  15  to  75  cents 
which,  like  the  price  of  the  occasional  mango  which  appears  on 
the  market,  is  too  high  to  allow  this  fruit  to  be  considered  a 
regular  part  of  the  diet.  Now  and  then  one  sees  the  sapodilla, 
or  papaya,  on  the  market,  particularly  in  the  Southern  States. 
While  the  most  of  the  tropical  fruits,  except  bananas,  citrus 
fruit,  and  pineapples,  are  still  for  the  most  part  curiosities  in 
the  general  market  of  the  Northern  States,  a  widespread  inter- 
est is  being  awakened  in  tropical  fruits  and  a  taste  for  these 
fruits  is  being  gradually  developed. 

It  is  possible  that  larger  quantities  of  these  less  familiar 
tropical  fruits  may  reach  the  northern  markets  with  the  use  of 
cold  storage.  The  only  systematic  experiments  thus  far  car- 
ried on  in  the  cold  storage  of  tropical  fruits  have  been  con- 
ducted at  the  Hawaii  Experiment  Station.  In  these  experi- 

82 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  83 

ments  it  was  found  that  most  tropical  fruits  could  be  safely 
held  for  a  period  of  I  or  2  months  at  a  temperature  of  32°  F. 
Some  fruits  can  be  held  longer.  For  example,  the  waterlemon 
retains  its  flavor  and  texture  for  a  much  longer  period  and 
seems,  in  fact,  not  to  be  badly  affected  by  cold  storage  for  a 
period  of  3  or  4  months.  The  use  of  cold  storage  makes  it 
possible  to  pick  pineapples,  avocados,  and  mangos  at  a  riper 
stage  than  would  otherwise  be  possible.  These  fruits  are  easily 
injured  in  shipment,  and,  therefore,  it  has  been  customary  to 
pick  them  while  very  firm  and  green  in  order  to  avoid  losses 
as  far  as  possible.  By  means  of  cold  storage  it  will  be  an 
easy  matter  to  handle  these  fruits  without  loss,  even  if  they 
are  picked  only  2  or  3  days  before  the  stage  of  complete  ripe- 
ness. 

The  discussion  of  tropical  fruits  in  this  chapter  does  not  by 
any  means  include  all  edible  tropical  fruits.  There  are  a  great 
number  of  fruits  in  tropical  countries  which  have  never  become 
known  outside  the  Tropics  and  which  never  enter  into  com- 
merce. In  fact,  many  of  them  never  appear  even  on  the  local 
markets  in  the  countries  where  they  grow.  They  are  known 
and  eaten  only  by  natives  and  by  others  who  may  occasionally 
visit  tropical  countries.  The  number  of  such  fruits  is  so  great 
and  their  economic  importance  so  slight  that  their  discussion 
in  any  adequate  manner  would  unduly  lengthen  the  present 
chapter. 

Questions  may  have  arisen  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  as  to 
the  behavior  of  our  familiar  temperate  climate  fruits  in  the 
Tropics.  Little  need  be  said  on  this  subject.  Apples,  peaches, 
and  pears,  at  least,  at  sea  level,  behave  in  a  very  erratic  man- 
ner in  tropical  countries.  Flowers,  green  fruit  in  all  stages, 
and  ripe  fruit  may  be  seen  on  a  tree  almost  at  any  season  of 
the  year.  A  few  apples  and  pears  which  have  occasionally  been 
produced  at  sea  level  in  tropical  countries  are  of  poor  flavor 
and  texture.  Some  varieties  of  peaches  do  fairly  well  in  so 
far  as  the  flavor  is  concerned,  but  the  yield  is  almost  invari- 


84  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

ably  low.  At  elevations  of  3,000  to  5,000  feet,  however,  con- 
siderable success  has  been  had  in  several  tropical  countries  in 
growing  apples,  peaches,  pears,  plums,  and  cherries.  Straw- 
berries and  grapes  thrive  fairly  well  in  nearly  all  tropical  coun- 
tries but,  for  the  most  part,  neither  one  of  these  fruits  has 
acquired  much  commercial  importance  in  any  strictly  tropical 
country.  Considerable  interest  has  been  added  to  the  study  of 
tropical  fruits  within  the  past  15  or  20  years  by  the  quite 
important  developments  which  have  taken  place  in  Florida 
and  southern  California,  particularly  in  Florida.  Practically 
all  of  the  well  known  tropical  fruits,  except  perhaps  bread- 
fruit, have  been  successfully  grown  to  a  bearing  age  in  Florida 
and  some  of  these  fruits  will  doubtless  acquire  enough  com- 
mercial importance  to  attract  serious  attention.  This  is,  of 
course,  particularly  the  case  with  avocados  and  mangos. 

BANANAS 

The  banana  is  a  native  of  India  and  southern  China.  It  is 
a  rapid-growing,  herbaceous,  treelike  plant  attaining  a  height 
of  4  to  25  feet,  according  to  variety  and  location.  The  large, 
glossy,  and  graceful  leaves  have  an  even  entire  margin  and 
attain  a  length  of  2  to  6  feet  and  a  width  of  I  to  2  feet.  The 
stem  or  false  trunk  is  succulent  and  is  composed  of  concen- 
tric layers,  being  really  made  up  of  the  bases  of  leaf  sheaths. 
When  the  plant  reaches  the  flowering  age  a  flowering  stem 
rapidly  grows  upward  from  the  bulb  through  the  center  of 
the  trunk,  appearing  at  the  center  of  the  crown  of  leaves  and 
bearing  several  clusters  of  irregular  flowers  protected  by  large 
purple  bracts  which  later  fall  off.  The  clusters  of  flowers  pro- 
duce the  "hands"  of  the  future  bunch  of  bananas.  The  male 
flowers  appear  near  the  tip  of  the  flowering  stem  and  later  fall 
off,  leaving  the  tip  of  the  flowering  stem  quite  bare.  With  the 
growing  weight  of  the  bananas,  the  fruiting  stem  turns  down, 
becoming  pendulous,  while  the  individual  bananas  stand  up- 


POPOULU  BANANA,  A  HAWAIIAN  VARIETY  To  BE  EATEN  BAKED 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  85 

right.  The  base  of  the  flowering  stem  is  thus  curved  into  a 
loop  which  forms  a  convenient  hook  by  means  of  which  the 
bunch  of  bananas  may  be  held  after  removal  from  the  stem. 
There  are  a  few  varieties  of  bananas  in  which  the  fruiting  stem 
does  not  turn  downward,  but  remains  erect  during  the  whole 
fruiting  period.  This  is  particularly  true  in  the  Fehi  and 
Kusaie  bananas. 

The  flowering  or  "shooting"  of  the  banana  occurs  about  7 
to  9  months  from  the  time  of  planting.  About  2,y2  to  4  months 
are  required  from  the  shooting  stage  to  the  development  of 
the  full-sized  bananas  ready  for  shipment.  In  the  case  of  the 
Chinese  banana  the  end  of  the  flowering  stem  carrying  the  male 
flowers  is  cut  off  after  the  fruit  has  set.  This  operation,  how- 
ever, is  not  necessary  with  the  Jamaica  banana. 

The  banana  is  propagated  by  suckers  which  are  usually  from 
2  to  8  months  of  age.  The  suckers  grow  from  the  base  of 
the  parent  stem  and  are  readily  detached  by  means  of  a  mat- 
tock or  cane  knife.  Cultivated  bananas  never  bear  seeds,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Fehi  banana  and  various  supposedly  wild 
species  of  banana.  In  these  so-called  wild  forms  and  in  the 
Fehi  banana,  as  well  as  in  the  Manila  hemp,  which  is  a  closely 
related  species,  the  fruit  contains  a  number  of  well  developed 
black  seed. 

In  the  West  Indies,  March  is  the  favorite  month  for  plant- 
ing bananas.  In  the  case  of  the  Chinese  banana,  the  leaves 
are  left  on  the  sucker,  but  the  leaves  are  cut  off  from  the  sucker 
of  the  Jamaica  banana  before  planting.  With  reference  to  gen- 
eral cultural  methods  for  bananas,  it  may  be  said  that  various 
systems  have  been  adopted.  In  some  localities  a  dust  mulch  is 
maintained.  Other  growers  prefer  a  leaf  mulch  or  use  a  sys- 
tem of  green  manuring.  For  the  most  part  not  more  than  2 
or  3  suckers  are  left  to  grow  about  the  mother  plant.  These 
suckers  are  always  of  different  age  and  represent  the  coming 
generations  of  banana  plants  on  a  given  plantation.  The 
banana  plant  bears  but  once  and  is  not  renewed  by  growth  from 


86  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  stump  of  the  old  plant,  but  by  suckers  attached  to  the  base 
of  the  stump. 

The  total  time  required  from  planting  to  the  fruiting  period 
ranges  from  12  to  14  months.  The  first  rattoon  crop  will  ap- 
pear within  12  to  16  months  later.  The  time  required  for  the 
production  of  the  first  crop,  or  the  rattoon  crops,  is  much 
longer  in  the  subtropical  regions  and  at  higher  elevations.  At 
Glenwood,  Hawaii,  it  requires  nearly  3  years  from  planting 
to  produce  a  marketable  bunch  of  bananas.  The  old  leaves 
are  usually  not  stripped  off  during  the  growth  of  the  banana 
crop,  but  are  allowed  to  droop  and  fall  upon  the  ground  as  they 
gradually  die. 

Each  banana  trunk  bears  one  bunch  of  bananas.  Rarely 
2  or  3  smaller  bunches  are  borne,  especially  in  the  case  of  the 
Chinese  banana,  but  this  is  an  unusual  performance  and  may 
be  almost  considered  in  the  nature  of  a  curiosity.  In  harvest- 
ing the  Jamaica  banana,  the  trunk  is  cut  off  5  or  6  feet  from 
the  ground  and  the  bunch  is  caught  as  the  trunk  falls  in  order 
to  prevent  the  bananas  from  being  broken  from  the  stem.  The 
ground  is  plowed  and  replanted  every  3  to  7  years.  In  some 
localities  it  is  considered  necessary  to  replant  at  intervals  not 
longer  than  3  years.  The  length  of  time  during  which  satis- 
factory yields  of  bananas  may  be  obtained  without  replanting 
will  in  all  cases,  however,  depend  upon  the  physical  properties 
of  the  soil  and  the  amount  of  fertilizer  and  cultivation  which 
the  crop  receives.  In  some  cases  good  yields  have  been  ob- 
tained for  10  or  even  12  years  continuously  without  systematic 
cultivation. 

The  yield  of  bananas  ranges  from  225  to  300  bunches  per 
acre  per  year.  Each  bunch  carries  from  6  to  12  "hands"  or 
clusters  of  bananas.  A  payable  bunch  of  bananas  is  considered 
by  banana  dealers  as  meaning  a  bunch  containing  9  hands  or 
more.  The  banana  grower  receives  from  30  to  60  cents  per 
bunch,  according  to  the  size  of  the  bunch  and  the  locality.  The 
American  market  for  bananas  is  best  during  the  months  from 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  87 

March  to  June,  and  an  effort  is  made  in  planting  bananas  to 
time  the  crop  so  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  bananas 
may  be  marketed  during  these  favorable  months. 

According  to  the  experience  of  most  banana  growers,  not 
much  fertilizer  is  required  for  bananas.  If  lime,  humus,  drain- 
age, and  good  cultivation  are  supplied,  and  if  a  rotation  sys- 
tem is  adopted  or  replanting  is  done  every  5  years,  good  results 
may  be  expected  without  the  use  of  other  fertilizers.  Some 
growers,  however,  apply  about  150  pounds  of  potash,  75 
pounds  of  phosphoric  acid,  and  50  pounds  of  nitrogen  per  acre 
per  year.  An  abundant  rainfall  is  necessary  for  the  satisfac- 
tory growth  of  bananas,  otherwise  irrigation  is  required.  The 
rainfall  should  be  from  60  to  100  inches.  The  banana  will  not 
tolerate  brackish  water.  If  the  irrigation  water  or  ground 
water  contains  even  small  percentages  of  salt  the  banana  will 
never  produce  a  marketable  bunch  of  fruit. 

There  is  a  large  but  indefinite  number  of  varieties  of 
bananas.  Plantain  and  banana  are  not  definite  terms  used  with 
the  same  significance  in  all  countries.  All  varieties  of  bananas 
are  called  plantains  in  Ceylon  and  India.  In  the  West  Indies, 
bananas  is  the  term  used  for  varieties  which  are  eaten  raw 
and  plantains  for  those  varieties  which  are  eaten  cooked.  In 
Hawaii,  the  corresponding  terms  are  bananas  and  cooking 
bananas.  All  the  varieties  of  bananas  belong  to  the  genus 
Musa  and  several  species  of  Musa  produce  edible  fruit.  Musa 
sapienlum,  in  full  development,  produces  a  trunk  20  to  25 
feet  high  with  leaves  4  to  8  feet  long.  The  flower  bracts  are 
of  violet  color  and  6  to  12  inches  long.  The  male  flowers  are 
deciduous  and  the  fruit  is  slightly  3-angled  and  about  3  to  8 
inches  in  length.  This  group  of  bananas  includes  the  Jamaica, 
Red  Spanish,  Apple,  Lady  Finger,  Ice  Cream,  Brazilian, 
Hamakua,  Largo,  and  the  Hawaiian  varieties  (Iholena,  Mai- 
maoli,  Popoulu,  Huamoa,  etc.).  The  subspecies  paradisiaca 
has  a  long  cylindrical  fruit  and,  for  the  most  part,  is  eaten 
only  after  cooking.  This  subspecies  includes  the  Kusaie  ba- 


88  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

nana  and  certain  semi-wild  forms  of  bananas  which  bear  seed. 
The  species  of  banana  known  as  Musa  acuminata  bears  fruit 
in  bunches  of  4  to  6  large  hands  of  10  to  12  fingers  each.  The 
fruit  is  short,  being  not  more  than  2  to  4  inches  in  length,  is 
beaked,  and  contains  seed.  This  species  is  common  in  the 
Malay  Archipelago. 

The  Chinese,  Dwarf,  or  Canary  banana,  known  to  botanists 
as  cavendishii,  and  also  sometimes  called  Cavendish  banana, 
grows  only  4  to  6  feet  high  and  bears  6  to  8  leaves  in  a  close 
crown.  The  male  flowers  are  persistent  on  the  tip  of  the  flow- 
ering stem.  The  fruit  is  slightly  hexagonal,  about  4  to  6  inches 
long,  and  with  a  rather  thick  skin  and  excellent  flavor. 

The  phenomenal  rise  of  the  banana  industry  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  phases  of  modern  commerce.  The  industry 
began  sometime  more  than  a  generation  ago  with  the  shipment 
of  a  few  bunches  of  bananas  to  the  United  States  from  Jamaica 
and  Panama.  In  1878  bananas  were  imported  into  the  United 
States  to  the  value  of  $500,000.  By  1900  the  value  of  the 
banana  imports  had  increased  to  $6,000,000,  and  in  1914  to 
$16,500,000.  This  industry  is  concerned  almost  entirely  with 
one  variety  of  banana,  commonly  known  as  the  Jamaica  ba- 
nana, but  also  sometimes  called  Gros  Michel,  Martinique,  or 
Bluefields.  The  Spanish  Red  or  Cuban  Red  banana  is  im- 
ported into  the  United  States  in  small  quantities,  and  may  occa- 
sionally be  seen  on  the  markets  of  our  large  cities.  The  Chi- 
nese banana  is  found  only  on  the  California  markets  and  in 
Florida.  This  banana  is  grown  in  Hawaii  and  has  thus  far 
been  marketed  exclusively  in  San  Francisco.  The  flavor  of 
the  Chinese  banana  is  so  well  liked  that  the  Hawaiian  bananas 
are  all  consumed  in  San  Francisco  and  Oakland.  Recently  an 
arrangement  has  been  made  for  shipping  about  15,000  bunches 
of  Chinese  bananas  per  month  to  Portland,  Oregon.  The 
banana  industry  of  Hawaii  is  a  small  but  slowly  increasing 
one.  It  began  about  1865  and  has  now  reached  about  20,000 
bunches  per  month.  The  United  States  imported  in  1914,  48,- 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  89 

000,000  bunches  of  bananas  from  Jamaica,  Costa  Rica,  Colom- 
bia, Panama,  Guatemala,  Nicaragua,  Honduras,  Cuba,  Do- 
minican Republic,  and  Hawaii.  Large  exports  are  made  from 
these  same  countries  also  to  Europe.  For  example,  the  Canary 
Islands  export  about  3,000,000  bunches  of  the  Chinese  banana 
annually  to  Europe,  mostly  to  England. 

The  development  of  the  banana  industry  has  been  largely 
due  to  the  efforts  of  several  large  fruit-distributing  companies 
which  have  built  and  operated  for  many  years  steamers  spe- 
cially adapted  for  this  trade.  There  are  now  about  300  steam- 
ers chiefly  occupied  in  the  banana  trade.  These  steamships 
carry  10,000  to  12,000  bunches  of  bananas  each,  but  some  of 
the  larger  ones  carry  50,000  to  75,000  bunches.  Special  ar- 
rangements are  made  on  these  boats  for  carrying  bananas  with 
a  minimum  of  loss.  Forced  ventilation  is  in  use  on  the  steam- 
ships and  in  some  cases  refrigeration  has  been  adopted. 
Bananas  do  not  endure  a  low  temperature  in  cold  storage  and 
the  temperature  commonly  adopted  is  not  lower  than  55°  F. 
In  addition  to  these  special  banana  steamships  which  are  also 
fitted  up  for  passenger  trade  in  tropical  cruises,  special  trains 
have  been  provided  for  the  fast  transportation  of  bananas  on 
arrival  at  ports  of  the  United  States.  New  Orleans  is  one  of 
the  large  distributing  points  for  bananas.  On  arrival  at  these 
distributing  centers  the  bananas  are  ripened  ,in  rooms  specially 
prepared  for  this  purpose  at  a  temperature  of  60°  to  80°  F. 
for  a  period  of  about  48  hours.  The  Jamaica  banana  is  so 
compactly  arranged  in  the  bunches  that  the  individual  bananas 
are  not  readily  broken  off.  Special  arrangements  have  been 
made  for  carrying  these  bunches  on  shipboard  with  a  view  to 
obviating  the  necessity  for  wrapping  the  bunches.  The  bunches 
of  Jamaica  bananas  are  laid  on  shelves  or  are  suspended  close 
together  so  as  to  prevent  rubbing  and  bruising.  The  Chinese 
banana,  on  the  other  hand,  seldom  develops  so  compact  a  bunch 
as  the  Jamaica  banana.  For  this  reason,  unless  special  ar- 
rangements are  made  on  shipboard  for  banana  transportation, 


90  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

it  is  necessary  to  wrap  the  bunches  in  banana  leaves  or  other 
suitable  material  in  order  to  prevent  the  individual  bananas 
from  becoming  broken  off. 

The  banana  is,  without  comparison,  the  most  important  tropi- 
cal fruit.  It  may  be  had  every  day  of  the  year.  The  great 
importance  of  the  banana  is  not  fully  indicated  by  the  commer- 
cial trade  in  this  fruit.  It  should  be  remembered  that  nearly 
every  inhabitant  of  the  Tropics  outside  of  the  large  cities  has 
a  few  banana  plants  in  his  garden  from  which  fruit  is  obtained 
for  table  use.  Millions  of  tropical  inhabitants  depend  upon  the 
banana  as  one  of  the  staple  food  products.  The  chemical  com- 
position of  the  banana  shows  that  this  fruit  contains  I  to  ij^ 
per  cent,  of  protein  and  14  to  26  per  cent,  of  starch.  Many 
persons  have  found  that  they  can  not  eat  bananas  without  some 
distress.  This  digestive  disturbance  is  apparently  due  to  the 
large  amount  of  starch  in  the  banana  in  all  stages  until  it  is 
fully  ripe  or  overripe.  In  the  ripening  of  the  banana  prac- 
tically all  of  the  starch,  which  constitutes  on  an  average  about 
15  per  cent,  by  weight  of  the  fresh  banana,  is  changed  into 
sugar.  The  banana  is  therefore  most  digestible  when  fully 
ripe.  The  transformation  of  the  starch  into  sugar  is  not  com- 
pleted until  the  final  stages  of  ripening.  It  should  always  be 
remembered  that  the  skin  of  the  banana  is  sufficiently  thick  and 
tough  to  protect  the  edible  pulp  against  dirt  or  contamination 
so  long  as  no  injury  has  occurred  to  the  skin.  Bananas  are 
therefore  a  safe  and  palatable  food  product,  even  after  the  skin 
has  turned  black,  provided  the  skin  has  not  been  broken.  In 
the  final  stages  of  ripening  the  pulp  becomes  a  soft  straw-col- 
ored jelly.  The  softening  indicates  the  complete  transforma- 
tion of  the  starch  into  sugar.  In  this  fully  ripe  or  overripe 
condition  many  persons  who  otherwise  would  have  to  abstain 
from  the  use  of  bananas  have  found  that  they  may  eat  them 
without  the  occurrence  of  digestive  disturbances. 

One  often  hears  the  expression  of  a  desire  to  pick  bananas 
fully  ripened  on  the  plant  and  to  enjoy  the  superior  flavor 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  91 

which  is  often  supposed  to  be  developed  under  those  condi- 
tions. This,  however,  is  entirely  a  misconception.  No  one  in 
the  Tropics  would  think  of  allowing  the  bananas  to  ripen  on 
the  plant.  In  the  first  place  they  do  not  ripen  uniformly.  On 
this  account  the  few  fruits  which  first  turn  yellow  in  different 
parts  of  the  bunch  are  quickly  attacked  by  birds  and  insects 
and  are  thus  destroyed.  In  the  second  place,  the  flavor  and 
nutritive  value  are  not  one  whit  improved  by  allowing  the 
fruit  to  ripen  on  the  plant.  Fruit  picked  two  weeks  or  longer 
before  ripening  and  hung  in  a  cool  place  on  the  bunch  will 
develop  their  flavor  and  nutritive  value  as  completely  as  if 
allowed  to  remain  on  the  plant.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
Tropics,  therefore,  commonly  cut  off  a  bunch  of  bananas  from 
time  to  time  for  household  use  and  allow  it  to  hang  in  some 
cool  part  of  the  house,  removing  the  bananas  for  use  as  fast 
as  they  ripen. 

Bananas  are  eaten  not  only  in  the  raw  condition  as  fresh 
fruit,  but  are  preserved  in  the  form  of  banana  figs  or  as  banana 
flour  and  a  great  variety  of  bananas  are  eaten  only  after  bak- 
ing or  frying.  The  product  known  as  banana  figs  is  made  in 
Jamaica,  Hawaii,  and  elsewhere.  The  method  of  preparation 
consists  in  slicing  the  pulp  of  the  banana  in  halves  and  allow- 
ing the  pulp  to  dry  either  in  the  sun  or  preferably  in  an  artifi- 
cial drying  apparatus.  The  sugar  in  the  fully  ripe  banana  is 
sufficient  to  preserve  the  fruit  in  that  form  and  the  moisture 
is  not  all  driven  out  by  the  process  of  drying.  The  resulting 
product  is  a  soft,  flexible,  yellow-colored  pulp  of  rather  agree- 
able flavor.  Banana  flour  is  made  from  fully  grown  unripe 
bananas  which  are  pealed,  sliced,  and  dried  in  the  sun  or  in 
vacuum  driers  to  a  moisture  content  of  about  15  per  cent. 
The  amount  of  desiccation  undergone  in  this  process  may  be 
understood  when  it  is  remembered  that  fresh  bananas  contain 
about  75  per  cent,  of  water.  The  material  is  then  pulverized 
and  sifted,  after  which  it  is  used  for  various  culinary  purposes. 
Cooking  bananas  are  baked,  fried,  or  cooked  in  a  stew  pan 


92  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

after  being  allowed  to  ripen  fully.  In  the  process  of  baking, 
an  agreeable  flavor  somewhat  different  from  that  of  the 
fresh  fruit  is  developed,  some  of  the  varieties  developing  a 
decided  sweet,  acid  flavor.  While  the  ordinary  Jamaica  banana 
may  be  cooked  or  used  in  fritters,  it  is  by  no  means  as  well 
adapted  for  this  purpose  as  the  varieties  of  cooking  bananas. 

There  are  a  great  number  of  varieties  of  bananas  differing 
in  flavor  and  appearance  as  decidedly  as  the  varieties  of  apples. 
Some  of  these  varieties  may  be  eaten  when  they  are  only  half 
ripe,  while  others  contain  in  the  unripe  condition  so  much  tan- 
nin as  to  be  quite  unfit  for  food.  This  is  particularly  true  of 
the  Apple  banana,  which  is  no  more  palatable  than  a  green 
persimmon  until  it  is  completely  ripe.  Little  effort  has  been 
made  thus  far  to  ship  cooking  varieties  of  bananas  to  the 
United  States. 

Waste  bananas  may  be  fed  to  stock,  but  they  should  not  be 
used  for  this  purpose  until  they  are  entirely  ripe.  They  may 
also  be  used  in  making  denatured  alcohol.  The  trunk  and 
leaves  of  bananas  are  used  as  cattle  feed.  For  this  purpose 
they  are  palatable,  but  not  particularly  nutritious.  Banana  fiber 
from  many  localities  has  been  tested,  but  the  commercial  use 
of  this,  fiber  offers  little  prospect  at  the  present  time. 

The  banana  differs  widely  in  its  chemical  composition  from 
the  ordinary  fruit  of  the  market,  such  as  apples,  pears,  and 
peaches.  The  high  percentage  of  starch  in  the  banana  makes 
this  fruit  somewhat  comparable  with  potatoes  in  nutritive 
value.  It  is  unquestionable  that  from  the  standpoint  of  human 
food  the  banana  is  the  most  important  fruit  known  in  the 
world's  commerce.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  obvious 
merits  of  the  banana  have  seemed  insufficient  to  some  of  its 
most  ardent  champions  and  resort  has  been  had  to  numerous 
exaggerations  which  have  been  repeated  parrot-like  in  the  lit- 
erature relating  to  bananas.  For  example,  on  a  basis  of  the 
chemical  composition  of  banana  flour,  comparisons  have  been 
drawn  showing  that  banana  flour  is  far  more  nutritious  than 


YOUNG   AVOCADO  TREE   IN   FRUIT,   TRAPP   VARIETY 


SANDERSHA   MANGO  TREE   IN   BEARING 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  93 

beefsteak  or  wheat  bread.  The  absurdity  of  such  claims  is 
sufficiently  apparent  when  one  remembers  that  the  fresh  ba- 
nana contains  75  per  cent,  of  water  and  that  a  comparison  of 
the  composition  of  the  dry  substance  of  one  product  with  an- 
other product  in  a  fresh  condition  is  obviously  unfair.  Many 
exaggerated  statements  as  to  the  yield  of  bananas  as  compared 
with  the  yields  of  potatoes  and  wheat  have  also  crept  into  the 
literature  of  this  subject.  For  example,  in  a  recent  book  on 
bananas,  which  is  perhaps  the  fullest  and  most  satisfactory 
discussion  thus  far  presented  of  the  whole  subject  from  an 
agricultural  and  botanical  standpoint,  the  statement  was  made 
that  the  total  yield  of  food  material  produced  by  bananas  is 
240,000  pounds  per  acre.  The  utter  impossibility  of  such  a 
yield  is  apparent  from  the  fact  that  the  average  number  of 
bunches  of  bananas  per  acre  per  year  is  from  230  "to  240.  In 
order  to  secure  a  total  yield  of  240,000  pounds  per  acre  it  would 
obviously  be  necessary  that  each  bunch  of  bananas  weigh  1,000 
pounds,  whereas  the  average  weight  is  from  40  to  75  pounds. 
The  banana  possesses  sufficient  well  known  merits  to  make  its 
way  in  the  world  without  the  aid  of  such  exaggerations. 

The  banana  is  subject  to  the  attacks  of  various  fungi  and 
insect  pests,  but  only  one,  the  so-called  Panama  disease,  is  of 
real  serious  consequence.  This  disease  causes  the  wilting  down 
and  rotting  of  the  stem  and  spreads  quite  rapidly  throughout 
the  plantation  and  from  one  plantation  to  another.  In  parts 
of  Costa  Rica,  Panama,  Mexico,  and  British  Guiana,  the  dis- 
ease has  caused  devastation  and  abandonment  of  large  areas 
of  bananas.  The  Panama  disease  attacks  particularly  the 
Jamaica  and  Brazilian  banana.  The  Chinese  banana,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  quite  resistant.  No  satisfactory  method  of  con- 
trolling the  Panama  disease  has  been  devised  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  the  Chinese  banana  for  the  Jamaica  banana  appears  to 
be  the  only  practical  method  of  continuing  in  the  banana  busi- 
ness in  the  infected  areas. 

The  United  States  occupies  a  very  unimportant  place  in  the 


94  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

production  of  bananas.  In  the  Philippines,  bananas  are  every- 
where grown  for  household  purposes,  but  have  never  become 
of  commercial  importance.  Experiments  have  been  carried  on 
at  the  Bureau  of  Agriculture  in  Manila  with  more  than  300 
varieties  of  bananas,  but  the  Philippines  cannot  be  said  to  have 
a  commercial  banana  industry.  Similarly  with  Porto  Rico, 
while  bananas  are  grown  in  all  parts  of  the  island,  they  are 
raised  for  domestic  use  and  do  not  come  into  international 
trade.  Hawaii  is  the  only  part  of  the  United  States  which  pro- 
duces more  bananas  than  are  consumed  locally.  As  indicated 
above,  the  shipment  of  bananas  from  Hawaii  to  the  United 
States  amounts  to  about  20,000  bunches  per  month,  and  this 
amount  may  be  nearly  doubled  within  the  near  future  by  an 
effort  which  is  being  made  to  secure  the  Chinese  banana,  grown 
in  Hawaii,  for  distribution  in  the  Northwest.  In  Florida,  the 
Chinese  banana  thrives  fairly  well  and  produces  good  bunches 
of  well  formed  bananas.  These  bananas  are  all  taken  by  local 
markets. 

PINEAPPLES 

A  genuine  pleasure  is  still  in  store  for  the  individual  who 
has  not  tasted  a  pineapple  allowed  to  reach  the  full  stage  of 
ripeness  on  the  plant.  The  pineapple  is  perhaps  the  most  con- 
spicuous of  the  few  fruits  which  do  not  develop  their  full  flavor 
if  picked  when  green.  The  pineapple  is  a  native  of  tropical 
America  and  is  now  cultivated  to  some  extent  everywhere  in 
the  Tropics  and  the  subtropics  and  even  in  Europe  (under 
glass).  It  is  grown  on  a  large  scale  in  South  America,  the 
West  Indies,  Porto  Rico,  Cuba,  Florida,  Hawaii,  Federated 
Malay  States,  Ceylon,  Java,  Queensland,  Madagascar,  and  in 
other  countries. 

The  pineapple  is  referred  by  botanists  to  the  name  Ananassa 
sativa.  The  plant  is  a  herbaceous  perennial  belonging  to  the 
family  Bromeliaceae.  It  reaches  a  height  of  2  to  4  feet,  devel- 
oping only  a  very  short  stem,  which  is  commonly  called  the 


FRUITS  AKD  NUTS  95 

stump.  From  the  base  of  the  stump  fibrous  roots  develop,  and 
arranged  along  the  upper  portion  of  the  stump  in  a  spiral  equi- 
tant  fashion  are  the  numerous  long,  narrow,  serrate,  and 
usually  spiny  leaves  which  are  channeled  above  and  are  about 
2  to  4  feet  long.  In  a  few  varieties  the  leaves  are  not  spiny 
along  the  edges.  At  blossoming  time  the  plant  bears  a  spike 
of  small  lavender-colored  flowers  and  later  produces  a  conical 
compound  fruit  which  at  maturity  varies  in  size  from  I  to  15 
pounds  or  more,  according  to  location  and  variety. 

The  pineapple  is  propagated  by  suckers,  slips,  crowns,  or 
stumps.  The  suckers  are  the  small  plants  which  develop  in 
the  axils  of  the  upper  leaves  below  the  fruit  stem.  The  crown 
is  the  cluster  of  short  leaves  which  are  formed  upon  the  tip  of 
the  fruit.  The  slips  are  small  plants  which  develop  from  the 
side  of  the  fruit  stem  just  at  the  base  of  the  fruit,  while  the 
stump,  as  already  indicated,  is  the  short  stem  of  the  pineapple 
plant.  Ordinarily,  propagation  is  by  means  of  suckers  since 
plants  grown  from  suckers  produce  fruit  more  quickly  than 
from  any  other  method  of  propagation.  If  suckers  are  taken 
for  planting  at  the  right  stage  of  maturity,  the  resulting  plants 
will  produce  pineapples  within  15  to  18  months.  The  crowns 
are  allowed  to  remain  on  fruit  for  fresh  shipment  and  can 
therefore  only  be  secured  for  planting  purposes  from  the  fruit 
which  are  canned.  It  requires  nearly  two  years  for  plants 
grown  from  crowns  to  ripen  fruit.  From  slips  the  mature 
fruit  are  obtained  somewhat  more  quickly  than  from  crowns, 
but  not  so  soon  as  from  suckers.  Stumps  are  occasionally  used 
for  planting  purposes  and  have  the  advantage  of  producing  a 
very  vigorous  growth.  They  may  be  only  half  buried  in  fur- 
rows or  may  be  entirely  covered  over.  In  fact,  the  methods 
used  in  planting  pineapple  stumps  are  similar  to  those  em- 
ployed in  planting  sticks  of  seed  cane.  The  pineapple  stump 
is  composed  largely  of  starch  comparing  favorably  in  this  re- 
spect with  sweet  potatoes  and  cassava.  The  stump  has,  there- 
fore, been  found  more  serviceable  than  the  sucker  in  planting 


96  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

on  manganiferous  soil  since  the  stump  itself  furnishes  a  large 
store  of  material  for  the  production  of  the  young  plant. 

In  preparing  suckers  and  slips  for  planting  it  is  customary 
to  remove  some  of  the  leaves  at  the  base  of  the  sucker  or  slip 
and  to  allow  the  cut  end  to  dry  thoroughly  before  placing  in 
the  soil.  The  suckers  or  slips  are  then  planted  in  rows,  being 
inserted  only  a  few  inches  into  the  soil.  These  young  plants 
are  extremely  drought  resistant  and  will  withstand  a  long  dry 
season,  finally  striking  root  and  beginning  to  grow  when  the 
rain  appears. 

The  rainfall  required  for  the  successful  growth  of  pineapples 
should  be  at  least  50  inches,  but  pineapples  will  endure  a 
much  heavier  rainfall  if  the  soil  is  well  drained.  Good  tilth  and 
satisfactory  drainage  are  very  necessary  for  the  proper  growth 
of  pineapples.  The  pineapple  is  a  rather  anomalous  plant  in 
some  of  its  relations  with  the  soil,  belonging  as  it  does  to  a 
family  of  plants  many  of  which  are  epiphytes  or  air  plants. 
It  appears  itself  to  be  able  to  live  for  considerable  periods  prac- 
tically as  an  air  plant.  Occasionally,  one  will  find  in  the  case 
of  large  vigorous  plants  that  practically  all  of  the  roots  have 
died  and  decayed.  The  living  roots,  however,  possess  an  un- 
usually heavy  coating  of  root  hairs  near  their  growing  tips,  and 
the  physical  condition  of  the  soil  with  respect  to  drainage  and 
aeration  appears  to  be  one  of  the  prime  factors  in  the  proper 
growth  of  the  plant.  It  is  necessary  to  keep  pineapple  fields 
as  free  as  may  be  from  weeds.  This  may  be  accomplished 
either  by  hand  weeding,  by  horse  cultivation,  or  by  spraying 
with  arsenite  of  soda.  The  chemical  method  for  destroying 
weeds  is  used  to  some  extent  in  the  pineapple  fields  of  Hawaii 
in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  cane  fields.  In  seasons  when 
rains  occur  so  frequently  as  to  keep  the  soil  constantly  moist 
for  a  long  period,  it  may  be  necessary  to  resort  to  dynamiting 
pineapple  fields  in  order  to  bring  about  drainage  without  pud- 
dling the  surface  layer  of  the  soil  by  cultivation.  Dynamiting 
has  been  tested  on  a  considerable  scale  in  Hawaii  and  with  sat- 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  97 

isfactory  results.  In  fields  of  growing  pineapples  the  sticks  of 
dynamite  are  exploded  about  20  feet  apart  both  ways  at  a 
depth  of  about  4  feet.  This  operation,  if  properly  carried  out, 
does  not  disturb  the  surface  layer  of  soil  and  therefore  does 
not  interfere  with  the  growth  of  the  plants. 

It  has  been  found  by  practical  experience  and  by  scientific 
investigation  that  pineapples  will  not  endure  an  excess  of  either 
lime  or  manganese  in  the  soil.  The  effect  of  an  excess  of  lime 
is  to  produce  a  yellowing  of  the  leaves  and  the  development 
of  small  fruits  in  which  the  normal  color  does  not  appear. 
Manganese,  if  present  in  the  soil  to  an  extent  of  more  than  3 
per  cent,  has  similar  effects,  but  the  effects  are  usually  mani- 
fested to  a  much  greater  degree.  On  highly  manganiferous  soil 
the  pineapple  leaves  turn  yellow  and  the  young  fruit  develops 
a  decided  pink  color  long  before  it  has  reached  its  full  size 
and,  of  course,  far  in  advance  of  the  process  of  ripening. 
These  fruits  even  when  ripe  are  extremely  acid  and  unpala- 
able.  Manganese  when  present  in  the  soil  in  excess  has  the 
effect  of  forcing  the  pineapple  plant  to  absorb  undue  quantities 
of  lime.  Some  of  this  lime  is  thrown  out  of  solution  in  the 
form  of  needle-like  crystals  of  oxalate  of  lime.  The  pineapple 
leaf  apparently  has  no  breathing  pores  or  stomata,  at  least 
thorough  search  has  failed  to  detect  any  stomata.  The  chloro- 
phyll of  the  pineapple  leaf  is  largely  located  on  the  under  side 
of  the  leaf  and  is  protected  from  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun  by 
a  reddish-colored  sap  in  the  epidermis  of  the  upper  side  of  the 
leaf  and  by  a  thick  layer  of  water-distributing  tissue  above  the 
chlorophyll. 

The  fruit  of  the  pineapple  differs  in  its  composition  and  rip- 
ening process  from  the  banana  or  apple  or  pear.  At  no  stage 
of  growth,  however  small  or  green,  does  the  pineapple  contain 
any  considerable  quantity  of  starch.  In  fact,  there  is  no  meas- 
urable quantity  of  starch  in  the  pineapple  at  any  time  except 
a  few  small  granules  in  the  green  tissue  of  the  rind  immediately 
under  the  eyes  of  the  fruit.  As  already  indicated,  however, 


98  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  stump  and  the  fruit  stem  are  completely  filled  with  starch. 
The  supply  of  sugar  for  the  ripening  pineapple  is,  therefore, 
secured  from  the  starch  in  the  stump  by  transformation  and 
translocation.  It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  when  the  fully 
grown  pineapple,  still  green  and  firm,  is  cut  from  the  plant  there 
is  no  material  in  the  fruit  which  can  be  transformed  into  sugar 
during  the  process  of  ripening.  Fruit  picked  in  this  condition, 
however,  does  undergo  a  process  of  ripening.  The  normal 
color  of  the  ripened  fruit  develops  and  the  tissue  of  the  fruit 
becomes  soft  and  juicy.  Fruit  picked  in  a  green  condition, 
however,  contains  no  more  sugar  when  it  is  fully  ripe  than  at 
the  time  when  it  was  taken  from  the  plant.  In  the  condition 
in  which  pineapples  are  commonly  picked  for  shipment  as  fresh 
fruit,  the  pineapple  fruit  contains  about  4  per  cent,  of  sugar. 
In  the  fully  ripe  condition,  on  the  other  hand,  the  pineapple 
contains  from  9  to  14  per  cent,  sugar  with  an  average  sugar 
content  of  about  n  per  cent.  It  is  sufficiently  obvious,  without 
argument,  that  the  flavor  of  a  fruit  containing  n  per  cent,  of 
sugar  is  far  superior  to  that  of  one  containing  only  4  per  cent. 
Pineapples  are  not  harvested  for  canning  until  they  are  com- 
pletely ripe  and  are  then  canned  within  24  to  48  hours  after 
being  harvested.  For  this  reason  the  flavor  of  ordinary  canned 
pineapples  is  superior  to  that  of  the  average  run  of  fresh  pine- 
apples to  be  found  on  the  market.  Without  refrigeration  it  is 
impossible  to  ship  perfectly  ripe  pineapples  for  the  reason  that 
they  are  too  easily  bruised  and  immediately  begin  to  ferment. 
The  difficulty  of  placing  fresh  pineapples  in  their  best  con- 
dition on  the  northern  markets  was  not  to  be  overcome  with- 
out the  use  of  refrigeration.  A  study  was,  therefore,  made  by 
the  Hawaii  Experiment  Station  to  determine  whether  refrig- 
eration was  adapted  for  use  for  pineapples.  These  experiments 
were  begun  after  the  Hawaii  Station  had  worked  out  the  essen- 
tial chemical  processes  in  the  ripening  of  the  pineapple  fruit. 
Pineapples  were  placed  in  cold  storage  rooms  at  temperatures 
of  32°  and  36°  F.  The  fruit  used  in  these  experiments  was  in 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  99 

various  stages  of  growth  from  green  to  fully  ripe.  In  the 
room  held  at  a  temperature  of  32°  F.  after  one  month,  ripe 
pineapples  showed  a  slight  deadening  of  the  normal  yellow 
color.  The  rind  was  otherwise  in  perfect  condition  and  the 
flavor  was  excellent,  being  equal  in  most  cases  to  that  of  the 
pineapple  freshly  cut  from  the  plant.  In  a  few  cases  the  acidity 
seemed  to  be  less  than  before  refrigeration.  After  about  45 
days  a  slight  withering  began  to  occur.  Essentially  the  same 
results  were  obtained  in  the  room  held  at  a  temperature  of  36° 
F.,  except  that  the  flavor  of  the  pineapple  began  to  deteriorate 
after  35  days  in  the  case  of  fruits  placed  in  refrigeration  in  a 
perfectly  ripe  condition.  These  findings  of  the  Hawaii  Experi- 
ment Station  have  been  put  into  practice  by  the  pineapple  grow- 
ers of  Florida  with  great  advantage  to  their  industry.  The 
pineapple  industry  had  been  somewhat  on  the  decline  in  Flor- 
ida, no  large  canning  establishments  were  located  there,  and 
fruit  consumers  did  not  take  very  kindly  to  the  sour  pine- 
apples which  appeared  on  the  northern  markets.  By  means  of 
cold  storage,  however,  it  has  been  found  possible  to  ship  ripe 
fruits  to  the  northern  markets,  and  fruit  buyers  have  been  glad 
to  pay  $i  a  crate  more  for  this  fruit  than  had  been  the  ruling 
price  for  pineapples  before  the  use  of  refrigeration. 

The  shipments  of  fresh  pineapples  from  Porto  Rico  are 
already  large  and  are  increasing  from  year  to  year.  The  fresh 
Porto  Rican  pineapples  are  all  shipped  into  New  York.  A 
large  percentage  of  the  Florida  crop  of  pineapples  is  also  sent 
to  New  York.  Recently  an  impetus  has  been  given  to  the 
shipment  of  fresh  pineapples  from  Hawaii  by  the  activities  of 
the  territorial  marketing  division,  which  is  carried  on  under 
the  supervision  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture. It  has  been  found  that  the  pineapple  rot  which  caused 
serious  losses  in  some  previous  shipments  of  fresh  pineapples 
from  Hawaii  is  very  prevalent  in  certain  localities,  while  other 
plantations  are  relatively  free  from  the  disease.  Shipments 
have  therefore  been  obtained  largely  from  plantations  where 


100  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  disease  does  not  greatly  prevail.  Hawaiian  fresh  pineap- 
ples have  recently  been  shipped  in  carload  lots  from  the  branch 
office  of  the  territorial  marketing  division  in  San  Francisco  as 
far  east  as  Chicago  and  other  cities.  A  large  industry  has  also 
been  worked  up  for  the  fancy  trade  in  which  9  and  lo-pound 
pineapples  are  sent  in  heavy  paper  cartons  by  express  to  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  United  States.  The  preferred  package  for  this 
kind  of  shipment  holds  four  fruit  and  weighs  a  little  under  50 
pounds. 

For  canning  purposes,  pineapples  weighing  from  3^2  to  5 
pounds  are  preferred  on  account  of  the  fact  that  there  is  less 
loss.  Some  attempt  has  been  made  to  select  plants  which  pro- 
duce cylindrical  fruit  rather  than  conical  fruit,  since  in  cylin- 
drical fruit  a  large  number  of  slices  of  the  same  diameter  could 
be  obtained.  This  also  prevented  undue  loss  of  fruit.  Per- 
haps the  largest  and  most  efficient  pineapple  canneries  in  the 
world  are  located  in  Honolulu.  The  process  of  canning  has 
been  systematized  until  the  whole  operation  is  practically  a 
continuous  one  from  the  lug  boxes  in  which  the  pineapples 
are  brought  from  the  field  to  the  sealed  can.  The  business  of 
pineapple  canning  has  undergone  a  quite  phenomenal  develop- 
ment in  Hawaii.  In  1908  the  output  was  about  350,000  cases, 
while  at  present  it  is  nearly  2,000,000  cases.  Even  the  core  of 
the  fruit  is  used.  The  paring  and  slicing  machinery  removes 
these  cores  in  the  form  of  cylindrical  "candles."  A  great  de- 
mand has  been  developed  for  these  candles,  all  of  which  are 
shipped  to  New  York.  The  candles  are  cooked  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  pineapple  slices,  canned,  and  shipped  to  New 
York,  where  they  are  used  in  the  glace  fruit  industry. 

The  pineapple  juice  was  formerly  allowed  to  go  to  waste  in 
large  quantities.  At  present  more  attention  is  paid  to  the  pres- 
ervation of  this  material.  Some  of  the  canneries  offer  a  bottled 
pineapple  juice,  which  has  been  merely  sterilized  by  heat  and 
filtered  and  is  otherwise  unmodified.  This  product  for  the 
most  part,  however,  does  not  have  a  very  agreeable  flavor  and 


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*«?&*" 


PAPAYA  TREE  IN  MIAMI,  FLORIDA 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  101 

does  not  make  a  very  strong  place  for  itself  on  the  market. 
Recently  a  pineapple  juice  prepared  in  Cuba  appears  to  be  of 
more  promise.  One  firm  in  Honolulu  prepares  a  condensed 
pineapple  sirup  to  which  some  cane  sugar  has  been  added,  and 
this  sirup  is  used  for  carbonating  at  soda  fountains.  A  very 
palatable  drink  can  be  obtained  in  this  way.  On  account  of 
the  large  amount  of  sugar  contained  in  pineapple  juice,  a  plant 
has  recently  been  erected  in  Honolulu  for  condensing  this  juice 
into  a  sirup  to  be  used  in  increasing  the  sugar  content  of  canned 
pineapples  for  the  trade  which  requires  additional  sugar.  The 
fiber  of  the  pineapple  leaf  has  been  used  for  various  purposes 
and  a  discussion  of  its  economic  value  will  be  found  under 
fibers.  Moreover,  the  stumps  are  filled  with  starch  and  could 
possibly  be  used  as  a  commercial  source  of  starch. 

The  varieties  of  pineapples  grown  commercially  in  Hawaii 
are  Smooth  Cayenne  and  Queensland,  particularly  the  former. 
In  Porto  Rico  the  leading  varieties  are  Cabezona,  Red  Spanish, 
Ruby,  Sugar  Loaf,  Trinidad,  and  Black  Jamaica.  In  Florida 
the  pineapple  growers  have  preferred  the  Red  Spanish,  Black 
Ripley,  Egyptian,  Golden  Pernambuco,  Abachi,  and  other  va- 
rieties. As  already  indicated,  the  shipments  of  fresh  pineapples 
from  Porto  Rico,  Florida,  and  Hawaii  are  quite  rapidly  in- 
creasing, and  this  may  be  taken  as  an  indication  of  the  favor 
with  which  the  pineapple  is  received  in  the  northern  markets 
so  long  as  the  fruit  is  shipped  in  a  satisfactory  condition.  With 
the  adoption  of  cold  storage  methods,  riper  pineapples  with  a 
larger  sugar  content  and  better  flavor  will  reach  the  northern 
markets  and  the  demand  for  fresh  pineapples  will  undoubtedly 
increase  as  these  improved  methods  are  put  into  operation. 

CITRUS  FRUITS 

The  literature  relating  to  citrus  fruit  is  so  extensive  and 
has  been  so  widely  distributed  in  the  form  of  bulletins,  maga- 
zine articles,  books,  and  newspaper  accounts  that  it  seems  un- 


102  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

necessary  for  the  purposes  of  the  present  volume  to  deal  in 
much  detail  with  the  cultural  and  industrial  methods  used  in 
the  production  of  these  familiar  fruits.  Citrus  fruits  are  native 
of  tropical  Asia  and  Malaya.  These  fruits  show  such  a  wide 
variety  of  form,  structure,  flavor,  and  other  characters  that 
a  brief  reference  to  some  of  the  distinguishing  features  of  the 
different  groups  of  citrus  fruits  may  be  desirable. 

The  lemon  (Citrus  limonia)  is  a  small  tree  with  short  stout 
thorns  and  with  leaf  stems  sometimes  narrowly  margined.  The 
flowers  are  rather  large,  being  pure  white  above  and  crimson 
beneath.  The  fruit  is  oval,  3  to  5  inches  long,  and  2  to  3  inches 
in  diameter.  The  favorite  varieties  of  lemon  in  California 
are  Lisbon,  Villa  Franca,  and  Genoa.  The  rough-skinned 
lemon  and  numerous  other  varieties  are  grown  in  tropical 
countries. 

The  lime  (C.  aurantifolia)  is  a  rather  small  tree  with  sharp 
thorns  and  small  leaves  with  winged  petioles.  The  flowers  are 
small  and  white  and  the  fruit  is  nearly  round,  I  to  2*/2  inches  in 
diameter.  The  lime  is  grown  extensively  in  the  West  Indies 
and  Central  America  and  also  to  a  less  extent  in  Florida,  Cali- 
fornia, and  in  the  eastern  Tropics  and  Mediterranean  regions. 
The  favorite  varieties  of  lime  are  Mexican,  Tahiti  (seedless), 
Sweet,  Kusaie,  etc. 

The  grapefruit  (C.  grandis),  also  known  as  pomelo  and 
shaddock,  is  a  larger  tree  which  is  spineless,  or  furnished  with 
flexible  spines,  and  has  glossy  aval  leaves  and  large  white 
flowers.  The  fruit  is  an  oblate  spheroid,  4  to  6  inches  in  diam- 
eter or  in  some  forms  of  shaddock  which  occur  in  Hawaii  and 
the  Pacific  Islands  the  fruit  may  reach  a  diameter  of  8  to  12 
inches  with  a  very  thick  rind.  The  supply  of  grapefruit  on 
the  United  States  markets  comes  largely  from  Florida  and 
Porto  Rico. 

The  common  or  sweet  orange  (C.  sinensis)  is  a  small  tree 
without  spines  or  with  slender  flexible  spines  with  narrow 
wings  upon  the  leaf  petioles  and  with  pure  white  flowers.  The 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  103 

fruit  is  nearly  round  and  the  number  of  segments  in  each  fruit 
ranges  from  10  to  13.  The  sweet  orange  is  grown  everywhere 
in  the  Tropics  as  well  as  in  California  and  Florida.  The  favor- 
ite varieties  are  Navel,  Valencia,  Pineapple,  Thompson,  Ruby, 
Majorca,  etc.  The  sour  orange  (C.  aurantium)  is  a  tree  of 
medium  size  with  long  flexible  spines,  white  fragrant  flowers, 
and  globose  fruit  2^  to  3^  inches  in  diameter.  The  sour 
orange  is  shipped  from  Spain  to  England  in  large  quantities 
for  use  in  making  marmalade.  Seedling  sour  oranges  are 
widely  used  as  citrus  stock  in  the  United  States  on  account  of 
their  hardiness. 

The  citron  (C.  medico)  is  a  small  tree  with  short,  stout 
thorns,  large  leaves,  and  large  flowers,  white  above  and  crim- 
son beneath.  The  fruit  is  oval,  6  to  10  inches  long  and  4  to  6 
inches  in  diameter,  usually  with  a  rough  skin.  This  tree  is 
cultivated  to  a  small  extent  in  Florida  and  California  and 
generally  throughout  the  Tropics.  The  chief  commercial 
cultivation  of  citron  is  in  the  Mediterranean  region,  par- 
ticularly in  Corsica.  The  dried  peel  is  shipped  to  the  United 
States  to  be  candied. 

The  kumquat  (C.  japonica)  is  a  bush  6  to  8  feet  high  and 
bears  oblong  or  round  fruit  about  one  inch  in  diameter.  The 
usual  form  of  kumquat  fruit  is  oblong.  The  Chinese  orange  is 
considered  as  being  the  variety  hazara  of  the  kumquat.  This 
tree  reaches  a  height  of  10  to  20  feet  and  bears  a  great  pro- 
fusion of  spherical  fruit  much  used  in  making  marmalade  and 
as  a  flavor  for  papaya  and  other  fruits.  The  bergamot  (C. 
bergamia)  is  grown  chiefly  for  the  essential  oil  contained  in 
the  peel.  A  brief  discussion  of  the  preparation  of  this  oil  will 
be  found  under  essential  oils.  C.  trifoliata  is  used  largely  as  a 
citrus  stock  on  account  of  its  extreme  hardiness.  The  fruit  is 
about  2  inches  in  diameter,  is  very  acid,  full  of  seed,  and  not 
very  juicy.  The  mandarin  group  of  citrus  fruit  includes  the 
Dancy,  the  King  mandarin,  Satsuma,  Mikado,  and  a  number 
of  other  citrus  varieties.  The  mandarin  group  is  commonly 


104  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

referred  to  as  C.  nobilis  and  these  varieties  are  known  either 
as  mandarins  or  tangerines. 

In  the  early  years  of  its  development  in  Florida  the  citrus  in- 
dustry made  a  slow  and  gradual  growth  until  the  season  of 
1884-85,  at  which  time  600,000  boxes  of  citrus  fruits  were 
shipped  out  of  Florida  groves.  During  the  next  decade  the 
industry  increased  very  rapidly  and  6,000,000  boxes  of  citrus 
fruits  were  shipped  from  Florida  in  the  season  of  1894-95. 
The  industry  was  then  greatly  crippled  by  the  great  freeze, 
after  which  it  built  up  rapidly  again.  For  the  year  ended 
August  31,  1915,  California  shipped  40,986  cars  of  oranges  and 
6,658  cars  of  lemons.  The  popularity  of  the  Valencia  orange 
has  so  greatly  increased  that  it  can  no  longer  be  said  that  the 
California  orange  industry  consists  in  growing  the  navel 
orange.  The  lemon  crop  of  California  in  1915  was  more  than 
twice  that  of  the  previous  year.  There  are  now  in  California 
20,000  acres  of  lemons,  21,000  acres  of  Valencia  orange,  and 
43,500  acres  of  Washington  Navel  orange,  all  4  years  or  under 
in  age.  When  these  areas  of  citrus  fruit  come  into  bearing  it 
will  greatly  increase  the  output  from  California.  Florida 
shipped  20,706  carloads  of  oranges  and  grapefruit  from  De- 
cember, 1914,  to  August,  1915. 

The  recent  development  of  the  citrus  industry  in  the  United 
States  is  due  chiefly  to  cooperative  organization,  regulated  dis- 
tribution, and  the  scientific  study  of  methods  of  packing,  pre- 
cooling,  and  shipment  in  refrigeration.  The  organization  of 
the  California  Citrus  Growers'  Association  was  one  of  the 
pioneer  associations  along  the  line  of  agricultural  cooperation 
in  the  United  States,  and  has  been  frequently  used  as  a  model 
of  efficiency  and  methods  in  the  organization  of  other  similar 
associations.  The  Florida  Citrus  Exchange  is  of  more  recent 
development,  but  is  of  almost,  if  not  quite,  equal  efficiency  as 
an  agency  for  the  scientific  distribution  of  the  Florida  citrus 
crop.  In  addition  to  the  citrus  fruit  produced  in  this  country, 
the  United  States  imported  in  1914  about  160,000,000  pounds 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  105 

of  lemons  and  about  4,000,000  pounds  of  oranges.  At  present 
the  consensus  of  opinion  gives  the  first  rank  to  the  grapefruit 
from  Florida  and  Porto  Rico.  California  grapefruit  are  more 
bitter  and  not  so  juicy.  The  lemon  industry  in  the  United 
States,  however,  is  almost  entirely  confined  to  California.  Lit- 
tle success  has  been  had  in  growing  lemons  in  Florida  except 
in  a  few  restricted  localities. 

Citrus  fruits  run  wild  in  various  parts  of  the  Tropics,  thus 
resulting  in  the  development  of  numerous  seedlings.  Some 
Hawaiian  and  Porto  Rican  seedling  oranges  are  of  excellent 
flavor  and  are  gradually  finding  an  appreciative  market.  The 
Porto  Rican  seedling  oranges  are  shipped  in  large  quantities 
to  New  York  City,  where  they  are  sold  to  the  poorer  inhabi- 
tants of  the  East  Side.  In  the  matter  of  citrus  fruit,  at  least, 
the  East  Side  residents  get  a  far  better  bargain  than  their 
more  prosperous  fellow  citizens,  since  the  seedling  fruit  cost 
much  less  than  the  standard  varieties  of  oranges  and  are  for 
the  most  part  actually  of  superior  flavor  to  the  Navel  and  Val- 
encia oranges.  The  same  statement  applies  with  equal  force  to 
some  of  the  Hawaiian  seedling  oranges,  which  are  far  superior 
to  the  California  oranges  shipped  to  the  Honolulu  markets. 
The  citrus  industry  is  rapidly  developing  in  one  line  or  another 
in  various  tropical  countries.  As  an  example  of  one  special  line 
of  development,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  perhaps  the  chief 
export  from  the  Dominican  Republic  is  concentrated  lime 
juice. 

The  orange-producing  countries  stand  in  the  following  or- 
der :  United  States,  Spain,  Italy,  Palestine,  Japan,  Porto  Rico, 
Cuba,  etc.  The  total  production  of  oranges  amounts  to  40,- 
000,000  boxes  per  year.  The  lemon-producing  countries  stand 
in  the  following  order :  Sicily,  Italy,  California,  etc.  The  total 
production  of  lemons  is  7,000,000  boxes  per  year.  The  citrus 
industry,  as  a  whole,  results  not  only  in  the  production  of  enor- 
mous quantities  of  fruit  to  be  consumed  in  a  fresh  condition, 
bull  also  in  various  by-products,  such  as  lime  juice,  lemon  juice^ 


106  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

citric  acid,  orange  juice,  orange  wine,  orange  vinegar,  lemon  oil, 
bergamot  perfume,  and  various  other  products. 

In  recent  years  a  keen  rivalry  for  the  early  citrus  fruit  mar- 
ket has  developed  between  California,  Florida,  and  Porto  Rico. 
The  highest  prices  are  obtained  usually  for  the  earliest  ship- 
ments of  fruit  which  the  market  receives.  From  a  financial 
standpoint,  therefore,  it  has  been  a  point  of  great  advantage 
to  reach  the  market  first  with  grapefruit  or  oranges  or  other 
fruit  in  which  the  shipper  is  interested.  No  one  of  these  com- 
petitors has  any  pronounced  natural  advantage  of  earliness 
from  climatic  conditions  over  his  competitors.  The  race  for 
the  early  market  has  therefore  involved  certain  tricks  of  the 
trade,  and  among  these  perhaps  the  most  familiar  one  is  the 
process  of  artificial  ripening.  It  has  been  found  that  by  a 
sweating  process  under  the  influence  of  artificial  heat  the 
chlorophyll  or  green  color  in  the  unripe  fruit  may  be  made  to 
disappear  quickly,  thus  producing  the  appearance  of  ripeness  in 
so  far  as  the  bright  yellow  color  of  the  rind  of  the  fruit  is  con- 
cerned. Of  course,  the  development  of  sugar  in  the  fruit  can 
not  keep  pace  with  this  change  of  color,  and  artificially  ripened 
fruit  may  therefore  be  readily  detected  by  the  narrow  ratio  be- 
tween acid  and  total  solids  in  the  juice,  these  total  solids  being 
chiefly  sugar.  After  numerous  tests  on  ripe  oranges  it  has  been 
determined  that  the  ratio  of  acid  to  total  solids  in  the  juice 
should  not  be  closer  than  1 : 8  as  a  standard  requirement.  In 
fruit  artificially  ripened  by  sweating  the  ratio  between  acids 
and  total  solids  may  be  as  close  as  1 15.  The  United  States  De- 
partment of  Agriculture  is  attempting  to  prevent  the  use  of 
this  process  of  artificial  ripening  for  the  reason  that  it  is 
essentially  a  fraud  toward  the  consumer. 

OLIVE 

The  olive  is  one  of  the  oldest  of  cultivated  crops.  It  is 
native  of  Asia  Minor  and  is  referred  by  botanists  to  the  name 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  107 

Olea  europ&a.  The  olive  is  cultivated  chiefly  around  the  Medi- 
terranan,  particularly  in  Asia  Minor,  North  Africa,  Turkey, 
Greece,  Austria,  Italy,  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal.  It  has 
been  introduced  and  cultivated  on  a  small  scale  in  nearly  all 
subtropical  and  tropical  countries,  but  aside  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean region  California  is  the  only  district  in  which  olive 
production  has  been  developed  on  a  commercial  scale.  The 
United  States  imported  5,000,000  pounds  of  olives  in  1914  and 
8,000,000  gallons  of  olive  oil.  This  indicates  the  increasing 
favor  with  which  olives  are  treated  in  the  United  States. 

The  olive  is  an  evergreen  tree  with  narrow,  lanceolate,  leath- 
ery leaves,  small  white  fragrant  flowers  and  a  spherical  or 
ovate  fruit  which  is  bluish-black  when  ripe.  The  olive  is  J4 
to  I  inch  in  diameter  and  has  a  hard  pit.  The  olive  is  easily 
propagated  by  cuttings  or  layers  as  well  as  by  seed.  Old 
trees  may  be  easily  improved  by  budding  or  grafting.  The 
olive  seldom  fruits  in  Ceylon  or  Hawaii,  although  the  trees 
reach  a  large  size  and  show  the  usual  vigor  of  growth  in  these 
countries.  The  reason  for  their  sterility  is  not  understood. 
Like  citrus  fruit  the  olive  is  not  strictly  a  tropical  plant,  but  will 
endure  a  temperature  of  20°  F.  or  in  the  case  of  some  varieties 
even  a  temperature  of  14°  F.  Such  temperatures,  however, 
cause  injury  unless  the  trees  are  in  the  most  dormant  condi- 
tion. The  olive  tree  lives  to  a  great  age.  There  are  trees  in 
Palestine  which  are  said  to  be  500  to  1,000  years  old.  Wild 
trees,  if  not  cultivated,  bear  only  every  2  or  3  years. 

Olive  trees  reach  a  height  of  about  40  feet  and  have  a 
rounded,  dense,  and  graceful  head.  The  strongest,  heaviest 
bearing  and  longest  lived  olive  trees  are  those  which  are  grown 
from  seed.  It  should  be  remembered,  too,  that  olive  fruit  is 
always  borne  on  2-year-old  wood  and  that  the  same  wood  never 
bears  twice.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  maintain  a  good 
growth  of  new  wood  every  year. 

In  California  the  olive  region  corresponds  quite  closely  with 
that  of  the  raisin  grape.  The  tree  appears  to  thrive  on  any 


108  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

well  drained  soil  which  is  supplied  with  sufficient  lime.  If 
young  trees  for  planting  are  to  be  obtained  from  seedlings,  it 
is  well  to  soak  the  seed  for  several  hours  in  a  10  per  cent,  solu- 
tion of  caustic  potash  before  planting,  otherwise  they  require  a 
long  time  to  sprout.  Cuttings  of  almost  any  size  or  age  may 
be  rooted  in  the  nursery,  but  these  cuttings  should  preferably 
not  be  less  than  £4  inch  in  diameter.  The  young  seedlings 
are  grafted  near  the  surface  of  the  ground.  The  olive  requires 
essentially  the  same  cultural  methods  as  citrus  fruits.  In 
California  this  means  clean  cultivation,  the  occasional  use  of 
cover  crops,  and  rather  heavy  applications  of  irrigation  water 
at  long  intervals. 

The  yield  of  olives  in  the  profitable  orchards  of  California 
varies  from  1,000  to  8,000  pounds  per  acre.  For  pickling 
large  olives  are  selected,  while  for  use  in  obtaining  oils  the 
smaller  fruit  and  culls  may  be  successfully  employed.  The  pre- 
ferred varieties  of  olives  in  California  are  Mission,  Sevallana, 
Manzanillo,  and  Ascolano.  The  process  of  pickling  olives  in- 
cludes three  essential  steps.  The  olives  are  first  soaked  for 
about  12  hours  in  a  solution  of  caustic  potash  at  the  rate  of  ij^ 
pounds  to  12  gallons  of  water.  As  soon  as  the  lye  has  pene- 
trated nearly  to  the  pit  the  olives  are  removed  to  pure  water 
in  which  they  remain  for  2  or  3  days,  the  water  being  changed 
at  least  once  a  day.  After  the  lye  and  bitterness  have  been  re- 
moved the  olives  are  placed  in  salt  brine  of  gradually  increas- 
ing strength.  For  olives  which  are  intended  to  be  bottled  or 
canned  a  brine  containing  5  pounds  of  salt  to  12  gallons  of 
water  is  strong  enough. 

For  use  as  green  pickles,  olives  are  picked  when  fully  grown, 
but  before  coloring.  For  use  as  ripe  pickles  or  for  oil  olives 
are  picked  after  coloring,  but  before  turning  black.  The  olive 
industry  in  California  is  a  thriving  and  profitable  one.  At 
present  the  olive  industry  ranks  along  with  the  walnut  indus- 
try among  the  most  profitable  agricultural  operations  in  Cali- 
fornia. During  the  development  of  the  olive  industry  in 


FEIJOA  TWIGS  AND  FRUIT 


TAMARIND  PODS  AND  LEAVES 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  109 

California  more  than  70  varieties  of  olives  have  been  tested, 
but  the  varieties  mentioned  above  have  come  to  be  considered 
as  superior. 

DATE 

The  date  palm  was  also  one  of  the  earliest  plants  to  be  culti- 
vated by  man.  It  is  a  native  of  northern  Africa  and  Arabia, 
but  is  also  cultivated  extensively  in  southern  Asia  and  spar- 
ingly throughout  the  Tropics.  Beginnings  in  date  cultivation 
have  been  made  in  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  California,  and 
Florida.  The  date  palm  referred  by  botanists  to  the  name 
Phoenix  dactylifera  is  a  tree  with  a  shaggy  trunk  which  often 
reaches  a  height  of  100  feet  or  more  and  continues  to  bear  fruit 
for  100  to  200  years.  The  trunk  is  topped  with  a  large  crown 
of  long  pinnate  leaves  and  bears  6  to  20  large  clusters  of  fruit, 
each  cluster  weighing  20  to  40  pounds.  The  date  palm  is 
diecious,  the  male  and  female  flowers  growing  on  different 
trees.  The  common  practice  of  Arabs  is  to  hang  small  portions 
of  the  clusters  of  male  flowers  with  the  clusters  of  female 
flowers.  As  a  rule,  it  is  considered  sufficient  to  have  one  male 
tree  for  each  25  female  trees.  The  ordinary  planting  distance 
is  25  by  25  feet.  The  date  palm  usually  begins  bearing  at  4 
years  of  age  and  attains  full  bearing  at  about  10  years.  The 
fruit  yield  ranges  from  100  to  600  pounds  per  tree,  being 
usually  100  pounds  or  slightly  more. 

The  date  palm  differs  from  most  other  palms  in  producing 
suckers  at  the  base  of  the  stem  at  least  during  the  first  8  or  10 
years  of  its  life.  Old  date  palms  which  have  obtained  nearly 
full  height  do  not  develop  suckers.  The  date  palm  does  not 
come  true  to  seed  and  for  the  continuation  of  desirable  varie- 
ties it  is  therefore  necessary  to  plant  suckers  or  offsets.  Re- 
cently an  attempt  has  been  made  to  develop  a  pedigreed  strain 
of  seed  from  which  it  is  hoped  that  30  to  50  per  cent,  of  the 
resulting  trees  will  bear  fruit  of  the  same  type  as  that  of  the 
parent  tree.  It  is  too  early,  however,  to  say  whether  this  ex- 


110  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

pectation  will  be  completely  realized.  Seedling  dates  are  seldom 
edible.  For  the  most  part  they  are  bitter  and  do  not  develop  a 
sufficient  quantity  of  sugar.  Even  the  seedling  dates  which  are 
sweet  enough  usually  have  only  the  thinnest  film  of  pulp  about 
the  seed,  so  that  they  are  practically  useless  for  table  purposes. 
Occasionally,  however,  a  fairly  satisfactory  seedling  date  is 
obtained. 

The  climatic  and  soil  conditions  necessary  for  the  best 
growth  of  date  palms  include  a  dry  air  and  high  temperature 
at  least  during  the  later  stages  in  the  development  of  the  fruit 
and  an  abundance  of  water  at  the  roots  of  the  trees.  Provided 
the  water  is  moving  and  not  stagnant,  the  date  will  endure  an 
unlimited  amount  of  moisture.  Moreover,  it  cannot  be  too  hot 
for  the  date  palm  and  the  air  cannot  be  too  dry.  The  date  palm 
is  quite  tolerant  to  alkali  water.  Among  the  numerous  varieties 
of  dates  which  have  been  introduced  and  grown  in  Arizona 
and  California  the  Deglet-noor,  Rhars,  Wolf  skill,  Amaree, 
Tedmama,  Hallawee,  Zahdee,  and  Bhar  have  given  excellent 
results. 

For  curing  dates  the  whole  bunch  is  removed  and  confined 
in  a  warm,  moist  chamber  at  a  temperature  of  80°  to  90°  F.  It 
JXPO  been  found  that  there  are  two  chemical  varieties  of  dates, 
one  containing  cane  sugar  and  the  other  containing  chiefly 
invert  sugar.  At  some  stage  of  development,  however,  all 
dates  contain  a  high  percentage  of  cane  sugar.  The  greatest 
increase  in  sugar  takes  place  shortly  before  ripening.  It  is 
impossible  to  ship  fresh  dates  to  any  great  distance  on  account 
of  their  susceptibility  to  injury  and  fermentation.  The  neces- 
sity arises,  therefore,  of  providing  facilities  for  curing  near 
the  date  plantation.  It  has  been  found  that  artificially  ripened 
dates  are  superior  to  the  naturally  ripened  fruit  in  keeping 
quality.  This  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  artificially 
ripened  date  is  more  nearly  sterilized  by  the  treatment  which 
it  undergoes.  The  dried,  cured  date  as  ordinarily  obtained  on 
the  market  contains  1.9  per  cent,  protein,  2.5  per  cent,  fat,  and 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  111 

70.6  per  cent,  sugar.    The  seed  constitutes  about  10  per  cent, 
of  the  date  by  weight. 

The  commercial  date  industry  of  the  United  States  is  still 
in  the  experimental  stage.  Dates  of  excellent  quality  have 
been  produced  in  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  and  California.  There 
is  a  market  in  the  United  States  for  far  more  dates  than  can 
be  produced  in  the  country  for  many  years  to  come.  The 
United  States  imports  about  25,000,000  pounds  of  dates  an- 
nually. 

FIG 

The  fig  (Ficus  carica)  belongs,  as  the  botanical  name  indi- 
cates, to  a  genus  of  tropical  plants  including  more  than  600 
species  of  which  many  are  familiar  as  species  of  rubber, 
banyan,  and  related  plants.  The  fig  is  a  native  of  Turkey  and 
the  Mediterranean.  It  is  a  shrub  or  tree  of  moderate  size 
with  palmately  lobed  leaves  and  peculiar  hollow  compound 
fruits.  It  is  cultivated  everywhere  in  the  Tropics  and  sub- 
tropics  as  well  as  in  the  Southern  States  and  California.  In 
California  the  tree  attains  a  large  size.  The  fig  tree  is  com- 
monly propagated  by  cuttings.  These  cuttings  are  very  easily 
rooted  and  after  they  have  rooted  and  developed  a  few  shoots 
carrying  leaves,  they  are  planted  in  the  field  at  distances  25 
by  25  feet.  In  the  Orient,  figs  are  planted  much  more  closely 
together.  For  fresh  consumption  the  favorite  varieties  are 
Celestial,  White  Adriatic,  Golden,  Black  Ischia,  Black  Cali- 
fornia, etc. 

The  Smyrna  fig  is  the  fig  of  commerce  and  appears  on  the 
market  in  the  familiar  dried  condition.  The  Smyrna  fig  is 
produced  chiefly  in  the  Mediterranean  region  and  in  California. 
Numerous  attempts  were  made  to  grow  the  Smyrna  fig  in  Cali- 
fornia before  the  introduction  of  the  Capri  fig  and  the  fig  wasp 
known  as  Blastopkaga  grossorum.  The  Smyrna  fig  in  order  to 
attain  its  normal  flavor  must  be  fertilized  by  the  fig  wasp.  This 
insect  was  introduced  into  California  in  1889,  since  which 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

time  a  highly  developed  industry  in  Smyrna  figs  has  come 
into  existence.  By  means  of  a  number  of  varieties  of  Capri 
figs  the  fig  wasp  is  carried  throughout  the  year  in  its  different 
generations  and  stages.  The  wasp  emerges  from  the  Capri 
fig  and  enters  the  opening  in  the  end  of  the  Smyrna  fig,  carry- 
ing upon  itself  a  portion  of  the  Capri  fig  pollen  and  thus  fer- 
tilizing the  Smyrna  fig,  causing  the  normal  development  of 
seed,  flavor,  and  aroma.  It  has  been  found  that  two  Capri 
figs  for  each  100  Smyrna  fig  trees  is  sufficient  for  purposes  of 
pollination.  California  produces  about  15,000  tons  of  Smyrna 
figs  annually,  and  in  addition  to  this  quantity  the  United  States 
imports  about  10,000  tons  each  year.  The  fig  has  a  fairly  high 
nutritive  value  for  fruits,  especially  in  the  dried  condition.  The 
fresh  fig  contains  1.5  per  cent,  protein  and  18.8  per  cent, 
sugars,  while  the  dried  fig  carries  4.3  per  cent,  protein  and 
about  75  per  cent,  total  sugars. 


AVOCADO 

The  avocado  (Persea  gratissima)  is  a  tree  native  to  tropical 
America.  It  has  become  universally  distributed  through  the 
Tropics  and  subtropics.  The  avocado  is  a  tree  which  attains 
a  height  of  20  to  60  feet,  has  leaves  4  to  15  inches  long  and 
2  to  10  inches  wide,  varying  considerably  in  thickness  and  glos- 
siness, and  fruits  which  vary  greatly  in  size  and  shape.  The 
avocado  fruit  may  be  oblong,  nearly  spherical,  pear  shaped,  or 
bottle  shaped,  and  may  vary  in  length  from  5  to  12  inches, 
in  weight  from  I  to  4  pounds,  and  in  color  from  green  through 
the  browns  to  purple.  Moreover,  the  rind  varies  from  almost 
the  thinness  of  paper  to  a  thick  woody  shell.  The  avocado 
has  also  been  called  aguacate  and  alligator  pear.  The  last 
name  has  become  generally  distributed  and  is  much  used  al- 
though it  is  really  a  barbarous  and  inappropriate  term. 

The  avocado  fruit  has  one  large  seed  occupying  the  center 
of  the  fruit.  In  some  seedlings  and  inferior  varieties  the  seed 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  113 

in  fact  occupies  the  larger  part  of  the  fruit,  leaving  only  a 
thin  layer  of  pulp  between  the  seed  and  skin.  There  are  200 
or  more  known  varieties  of  avocado  which  are  cultivated  in 
various  parts  of  the  Tropics  and  subtropics.  The  avocado 
is  propagated  by  seed  and  by  budding,  grafting,  or  inarching. 
The  seed  are  used  merely  to  obtain  the  seedlings  which  can 
be  budded,  grafted,  or  inarched.  The  avocado  does  not  come 
true  to  seed  and  it  is  therefore  an  unnecessary  gamble  to  plant 
any  considerable  orchard  to  seedling  avocados.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  great  variation  which  occurs  in  the  seedling  avocados 
some  of  them  possess  flavor  and  other  properties  fully  equal 
to  the  most  improved  varieties. 

The  avocado  tree  begins  bearing  at  5  or  6  years  of  age. 
There  is  occasionally  a  tree  which  bears  fruit  at  3  years  and 
sometimes  not  until  7  years.  The  full  bearing  age  may  be 
expected  at  about  8  to  10  years.  A  yield  of  500  fruits  per 
tree  must  be  considered  quite  satisfactory  although  occa- 
sionally trees  have  been  reported  as  yielding  from  800  to  2,000 
fruits. 

In  general,  the  long  green-colored  varieties  of  avocado  are 
preferred  as  being  superior  in  texture  and  flavor.  In  Florida 
the  Trapp  avocado  is  generally  cultivated.  In  California  the 
varieties  thus  far  planted  have  been  obtained  largely  from 
Mexico  and  Hawaii.  In  Hawaii  a  large  number  of  chance 
seedlings  of  superior  merit  have  been  propagated  and  varie- 
ties have  been  introduced  from  all  parts  of  the  world  until 
about  65  varieties  have  been  established  at  the  Hawaii  Ex- 
periment Station.  One  of  these  varieties,  known  as  the  Nut- 
meg, has  an  extremely  hard  woody  shell  covered  with  rough- 
ened protuberances.  This  is  essentially  a  winter  or  very  late 
variety  and  helps  to  extend  very  greatly  the  season  during 
which  avocados  may  be  obtained  on  the  market.  The  greater 
part  of  the  crop  of  avocados  in  Hawaii  comes  to  the  market 
from  June  to  August,  but  a  good  supply  is  maintained  from 
May  to  September.  Avocados  arrive  on  the  Honolulu  market 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

first  from  Kona  in  early  April.  Attention  has  been  called 
to  the  fact  that  if  one  has  regard  to  the  whole  avocado  crop 
from  Peru  to  Florida  and  including  the  Pacific  Islands  there 
are  avocados  on  the  market  for  all  seasons  of  the  year.  The 
season  during  which  fruit  of  good  quality  can  be  obtained  in 
any  reasonable  quantity,  however,  is  limited  to  a  few  months. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  cannot  be  said  to  be  as  yet  any 
commercial  avocado  industry.  While  this  tree  has  been  grown 
in  all  localities  throughout  tropical  countries,  it  has  never  been 
planted  in  commercial  orchards  except  perhaps  in  Florida. 
We  have,  therefore,  the  curious  condition  of  affairs  that  prob- 
ably the  largest  avocado  orchards  in  the  world  are  now  located 
in  Florida  in  a  locality  where  until  recently  it  was  not  known 
whether  avocados  would  thrive  at  all  or  not. 

The  avocado  in  chemical  composition  is  more  like  a  nut  than 
like  a  fruit.  The  fresh  fruit  contains  1.5  to  2.5  per  cent,  pro- 
tein and  13  to  22  per  cent,  oil  depending  upon  variety  and  cli- 
mate. There  is  practically  no  starch  or  sugar  in  the  avocado 
fruit  at  any  stage  of  growth.  The  oil  may  be  easily  extracted 
by  pressure  and  is  of  a  greenish  color  and  excellent  flavor.  It 
would  be  a  superior  salad  oil  but  would  necessarily  be  ex- 
tremely expensive  since  the  demand  for  the  fresh  fruits  is  so 
active  as  to  drive  the  price  of  the  raw  material  far  beyond  the 
point  which  would  allow  an  economic  production  of  oil. 

The  avocado  endures  cold  storage  excellently  well.  At  the 
Hawaii  Experiment  Station  avocados  were  held  for  a  period  of 
60  days  at  a  temperature  of  32°  F.  and  when  removed  from 
the  storage  room  were  found  to  have  retained  their  flavor 
almost  perfectly.  This  refrigerated  fruit  held  its  flavor  for 
a  period  of  6  days  after  removal  from  cold  storage. 

MANGO 

The  mango  (Mangifera  indica)  is  one  of  a  group  of  about 
30  species  of  trees  native  to  tropical  Asia.  The  mango  is  the 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  115 

only  one  in  this  group  which  produces  fruit  of  value.  It  has 
been  cultivated  for  centuries  in  India  and  was  introduced  into 
the  Philippines  in  the  sixteenth  century.  More  recently  much 
interest  has  been  shown  in  the  mango  in  Florida,  Porto  Rico, 
Cuba,  and  Hawaii.  The  mango  is  a  beautiful  evergreen  tree, 
with  dense  foliage,  entire  leathery  lanceolate  leaves,  and  grace- 
ful panicles  of  small  reddish-yellow  or  green  flowers.  The 
fruit  is  borne  in  pendant  clusters  on  long  pedicles  and  varies 
in  size  from  2  or  3  ounces  to  3  pounds  in  weight,  according 
to  variety.  The  tree  bears  a  crop  of  fruit  each  year  or  occa- 
sionally two  crops  will  be  borne  on  a  few  trees  in  the  mango 
orchard.  The  mango  is  now  widely  distributed  throughout 
the  Tropics,  where  it  occurs  in  a  great  range  of  varieties. 
About  600  varieties  have  been  mentioned  as  occurring  in  India 
alone  and  new  varieties  are  constantly  appearing  by  the  nat- 
ural variation  of  seedlings  and  as  a  result  of  cross-pollination 
in  orchards  of  mixed  varieties.  Some  of  these  variety  names 
are  doubtless  synonymous  but  the  number  of  horticulturally 
distinct  varieties  is  unquestionably  large. 

The  mango  is  nowhere  grown  in  large  continuous  orchards 
but  almost  everyone  in  the  Tropics  has  a  mango  tree.  Some 
of  the  most  delicious  varieties  of  mangos  come  from  the 
Philippines,  where  the  chief  varieties  are  Carabao,  Pico,  and 
Pahutan.  Some  of  the  noted  and  most  highly  esteemed  Indian 
varieties  of  mango  are  Alphonse,  Totapari,  Cambodiana,  Mul- 
goa,  Mulgoba,  Sandersha,  Brindabani,  etc.  In  addition  to  these 
well  known  improved  varieties  of  superior  flavor  and  other 
merits,  there  are  hundreds  of  varieties  of  seedling  trees,  some 
of  which  are  of  rather  high  merit  but  which  are  likely  to  be 
full  of  fiber  and  permeated  with  the  flavor  of  turpentine. 

The  esteem  in  which  the  mango  is  held  as  a  fruit  for  eating 
in  a  fresh  condition  depends  almost  entirely  on  the  varieties 
with  which  acquaintance  has  been  had.  If  one's  notion  of  the 
mango  came  from  attempts  to  eat  the  ordinary  stringy  tur- 
pentiny  seedling,  the  mango  would  be  considered  as  a  practi- 


116  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

cally  worthless  fruit.  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  best 
varieties  have  a  delicate  aroma  and  a  flavor  of  the  highest 
delicacy.  It  is  unquestionable  that  if  the  standard  varieties 
of  mangos  could  be  placed  on  the  northern  markets  in  prime 
condition  the  demand  for  them  would  soon  far  exceed  that  for 
any  other  fresh  tropical  fruit  except  bananas  and  pineapples. 
The  color  and  shape  of  the  mango  fruit  vary  greatly  as  well 
as  the  size  of  the  fruit.  The  color  ranges  from  green  to  yel- 
low, and  various  peach  tints  to  a  decided  magenta,  and  the  rind 
may  be  variously  speckled  with  yellow  or  pink  spots  or  with 
a  blush  of  high  color  on  one  side  of  the  fruit.  The  amount 
of  fiber  in  the  fruit  also  varies  greatly.  In  some  varieties  the 
slicing  of  the  fruit  with  a  knife  makes  a  noise  like  the  opera- 
tion of  shaving  a  stiff  beard.  In  other  varieties  the  pulp  is  so 
free  from  fiber  and  of  such  consistency  that  it  may  be  readily 
eaten  with  a  spoon. 

The  mango,  with  the  exception  of  some  of  the  Philippine 
varieties,  does  not  come  true  to  seed.  It  should  be  propagated 
therefore  by  the  methods  of  inarching,  budding,  grafting,  or 
bark  grafting.  In  some  of  the  seedling  types,  particularly 
those  from  the  Philippines,  the  seed  is  polyembryonic,  each 
seed  producing  6  to  8  or  more  plants.  Such  types  of  mangos 
usually  come  fairly  true  to  seed.  In  planting  the  seed  the  husk 
should  be  removed.  This  hastens  germination  and  also  en- 
ables one  to  see  whether  he  is  planting  a  good  kernel  or  a 
mere  empty  husk.  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  seeds 
do  not  retain  their  germinating  power  more  than  one  to  two 
months  after  removal  from  the  fruit.  In  many  localities  in 
the  Tropics  seed  is  likely  to  be  destroyed  by  the  mango  weevil, 
which  enters  the  fruit  when  it  is  young  and  goes  through  its 
transformations  in  the  kernel  of  the  seed. 

The  flower  panicles,  the  young  fruit,  and  the  growing  twigs 
are  often  attacked  by  the  fungous  disease  known  as  the  mango 
anthracnose.  This  causes  a  blighting  of  the  twigs  and  flowers 
and  prevents  the  setting  of  fruit.  It  is  particularly  prevalent 


FRUITING  BRANCH  OF  LITCHI 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  117 

in  moist  weather  but  it  can  be  controlled  by  spraying  with 
Bordeaux  mixture  unless  repeated  and  frequent  rain  storms 
occur  during  the  flowering  season.  The  fruit  also  fails  to  set 
if  high  winds  and  heavy  rains  occur  during  the  flowering  sea- 
son even  without  the  attacks  of  anthracnose.  If  the  setting 
of  fruit  should  thus  be  prevented  by  these  causes  a  new  crop 
of  flowers  may  be  produced  a  month  or  two  later,  thus  bring- 
ing a  crop  of  fruit  to  maturity  out  of  the  regular  season.  In 
these  respects  the  mango  is  like  the  avocado,  which  is  also 
affected  by  anthracnose  in  the  same  manner  and  which  may  be 
prevented  from  setting  fruit  by  persistent  rain  during  the 
flowering  season. 

The  mango  has  often  been  called  the  apple  of  the  Tropics 
and  sometimes  the  king  of  fruits.  The  term  apple  of  the 
Tropics  is  more  or  less  appropriate  since  it  occurs  in  such  great 
abundance  throughout  the  Tropics,  is  in  everybody's  dooryard, 
and  is  eaten  in  the  fresh  condition,  stewed,  or  made  into  jellies 
and  marmalade.  The  comparison  appears  even  more  close 
when  one  remembers  that  the  green  mango,  like  the  green 
apple,  is  an  important  part  of  the  ration  of  young  boys.  Wher- 
ever the  Mediterranean  fruit  fly  prevails  most  varieties  of 
mangos  are  seriously  attacked  by  this  pest. 

The  mango  is  not  only  a  delicious  fruit  for  consumption 
in  the  fresh  condition  but  makes  an  excellent  green  sauce  re- 
sembling green  apple  sauce  in  appearance  and  flavor.  The 
fruit  when  cooked  in  a  green  condition  jellies  readily  and 
may  therefore  be  used  for  jam,  jelly,  or  marmalade.  More- 
over, the  mango  is  widely  used  in  the  preparation  of  Chutney 
sauce  which  contains  mango,  raisins,  tamarind,  chili,  mace, 
cloves,  pimento,  salt,  and  mustard  seed.  The  mango  endures 
shipment  well  and  may  be  held  in  cold  storage  without  injury 
for  a  period  of  6  to  8  weeks  at  a  temperature  of  32°  to  40°  F. 

The  seedling  mango  tree  comes  into  bearing  at  about  6 
or  7  years  of  age.  Inarched  and  budded  mangos,  however,  may 
be  brought  to  bearing  within  2  or  3  years.  In  some  cases  in- 


118  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

arched  trees  have  borne  within  18  months  after  the  process  of 
inarching. 

The  mango  was  first  planted  in  Florida  on  the  Keys  in  the 
forties  and  on  Biscayne  Bay,  Florida,  at  about  the  same  time. 
The  first  trees  to  develop  in  Florida  were  therefore  seedlings. 
Grafted  specimens  of  the  Mulgoba  mango  were  brought  to 
Florida  in  1889.  The  varieties  at  present  grown  in  Florida 
fruit  from  May  to  September.  For  shipment  to  the  northern 
cities  mangos  are  picked  after  developing  their  color  and  before 
softening.  The  amount  of  sugar  in  mangos  range  from  11.5 
to  20  per  cent.,  depending  upon  the  variety  and  stage  of  ripe- 
ness. Mangos  also  contain  from  0.5  to  I  per  cent,  protein  and 
therefore  in  their  nutritive  value  compare  favorably  with  other 
common  fruits. 

PAPAYA 

The  papaya  is  native  to  Central  America  and  the  West 
Indies.  The  type  which  has  made  the  greatest  place  for  itself 
belongs  to  the  species  Carica  papaya.  The  other  common  types 
of  papaya  are  C.  paltata,  C.  quercifolia,  C.  erythrocarpa,  etc. 
The  common  papaya,  often  called  papaw,  especially  in  the  Eng- 
lish tropical  colonies  but  having  no  close  relationship  with  the 
common  papaw  of  the  central  states,  occurs  everywhere 
throughout  the  Tropics  and  subtropics.  It  grows  wild  even  in 
Florida.  The  trunk  of  the  papaya  tree  reaches  a  height  of  25 
feet  and  bears  long  stemmed,  palmately  seven-lobed  leaves, 
which  are  about  2  feet  across.  The  leaves  are  borne  in  a 
crown  at  the  top  of  the  tree  and  fall  away  as  soon  as  mature, 
leaving  a  large  characteristic  scar  on  the  trunk  of  the  tree. 
The  trunk  is  sometimes  branched  but  usually  is  unbranched 
and  erect.  The  fruit  of  the  papaya  varies  in  size  from  that 
of  a  tennis  ball  to  long  watermelon-like  fruit,  weighing  some- 
times 1 8  pounds  and  measuring  16  inches  in  length.  The  fruit 
varies  greatly  also  in  shape  from  perfectly  spherical  to  elon- 
gated or  cucumber  form  and  several  types  of  papaya  are  dis- 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  119 

tinctly  pentagonal.  The  fruit  of  Carica  erythrocarpa  is  similar 
to  that  of  the  common  papaya  but  has  a  red  flesh  and  an  ex- 
tremely thin  rind.  This  species  has  sometimes  been  considered 
as  particularly  useful  in  the  production  of  papain.  The  fruit 
of  C.  candamarcensis  is  about  the  size  of  a  baseball,  rich  yel- 
low in  color,  and  five-angled.  The  flavor  is  not  particularly 
meritorious.  The  leaves  of  this  species  are  cordate,  palmately 
five-lobed,  and  smaller  than  in  the  common  papaya.  C.  querci- 
folia  is  a  curious  branched,  small-fruited  papaya  with  oak-like 
leaves  and  clusters  of  ellipsoid  yellow  fruit  I  or  2  inches  in 
length. 

The  papaya  is  commonly  propagated  by  seed  but  does  not 
come  true.  The  variation  in  the  size,  shape,  and  flavor  of 
papayas  is  therefore  without  end  or  restraint.  It  has  recently 
been  found  that  the  papaya  may  be  readily  grafted.  This  fur- 
nishes a  method  of  propagating  varieties  of  superior  merit. 
After  a  tree  has  come  to  bearing  and  has  shown  a  desirable 
flavor  and  size  of  fruit  the  tree  may  be  beheaded,  after  which 
a  large  number  of  shoots  will  appear  near  the  tip  of  the  trunk. 
These  shoots  may  be  grafted  by  the  ordinary  wedge  process 
into  the  trunks  of  small  seedlings  about  I  inch  in  diameter. 
No  difficulty  is  experienced  in  propagating  by  this  method. 

Another  method  of  establishing  a  desirable  type  of  papaya 
has  been  for  some  time  under  investigation  at  the  Hawaii 
Experiment  Station.  This  method  is  based  on  an  attempt  to 
eliminate  the  male  papaya  and  to  secure  a  type  which  will 
produce  only  hermaphrodite  plants.  It  should  be  remembered 
that  the  papaya  is  normally  a  diecious  tree  and  that  about  half 
of  the  trees  are  male  and  half  female.  The  conditions  which 
appear  in  the  reproductive  organ  of  the  papaya,  however,  are 
extremely  variable.  For  the  most  part  the  flowers  on  the  male 
trees  are  small  and  borne  in  long  branching  panicles  2  to  5 
feet  in  length.  The  flowers  on  the  female  trees,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  large  and  nearly  sessile  along  the  side  of  the  trunk  in 
the  axils  of  the  leaves.  In  some  cases  fruit  of  superior  quality 


120  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

is  borne  on  the  male  trees.  Some  male  trees  bear  regularly 
and  quite  heavily,  but  the  fruit  hang  suspended  on  long  pedi- 
cles rather  than  being  sessile  on  the  side  of  the  trunk  as  in 
female  trees.  Occasionally,  a  female  tree  is  found  in  which 
the  flowers  are  perfect.  At  the  Hawaii  Experiment  Station 
a  flower  on  a  tree  of  this  type  was  self-fertilized  and  protected 
from  cross-pollination.  The  seed  obtained  from  the  resulting 
fruit  were  all  planted  and  as  soon  as  the  trees  came  into  bearing 
a  selection  was  made  of  the  most  desirable  type  and  on  this  tree 
the  flower  was  again  cross-pollinated  and  a  second  generation 
of  trees  obtained.  This  second  generation  included  454  trees 
and  a  careful  examination  of  these  trees  showed  that  95  per 
cent,  were  self-fertile.  This  gives  reason  to  hope  that  within 
a  few  more  generations  a  self-fertile  type  will  be  established 
which  will  obviate  the  necessity  of  cross-pollination  and  prevent 
the  endless  variation  which  occurs  from  this  method  of 
propagation. 

The  papaya  comes  into  bearing  perhaps  earlier  than  any 
other  fruit  tree.  Under  favorable  conditions  large  ripe  fruit 
may  be  obtained  within  n  or  12  months  from  the  time  of 
planting  the  seed.  The  trunk  is  succulent  and  starchy  and 
grows  very  rapidly.  For  commercial  purposes  it  is  perhaps 
desirable  to  cut  down  the  orchard  and  replant  at  the  end  of 
3  years  since  the  papaya  tree  has  the  peculiar  habit  of  tapering 
to  a  point,  after  which  the  fruit  is  extremely  small.  The 
papaya  is  one  of  the  few  commercial  plants  in  which  it  has 
been  found  possible  to  change  the  sex  by  mutilation.  At  the 
Hawaii  Experiment  Station,  22  perfectly  sterile,  staminate 
papaya  trees  were  beheaded.  When  the  new  growth  appeared 
on  these  trees  it  was  found  that  two  of  the  trees  had  become 
strictly  female  trees  bearing  large  fruit.  Change  of  sex  in 
papaya  has  also  been  produced  in  one  or  two  instances  by  other 
investigators. 

The  juice  of  the  fruit,  stem,  and  leaves  of  the  papaya  con- 
tains an  active  ferment  known  as  papain,  a  vegetable  pepsin. 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  121 

The  milky  juice  pours  out  of  the  rind  of  the  green  fruit  in 
abundance  after  shallow  tapping.  In  an  investigation  at  the 
Hawaii  Experiment  Station  it  was  found  that  if  in  the  early 
morning  a  dozen  shallow  lengthwise  incisions,  J^  to  ^  inch 
apart,  were  made  in  a  papaya  fruit  of  good  size,  enough  juice 
would  be  obtained  to  make  an  ounce  of  dry  papain.  Crude  dry 
papain  ordinarily  brings  about  $2  a  pound  on  the  market. 
This  ferment  is  even  more  active  than  the  common  ferment 
of  the  pineapple,  but  like  that  of  the  pineapple  is  destroyed 
by  cooking.  The  action  of  the  papaya  ferment  is  so  well  known 
that  it  is  used  for  various  purposes  throughout  the  Tropics. 
If  a  piece  of  tough  steak  is  wrapped  in  a  bruised  papaya  leaf 
the  papaya  ferment  will  rapidly  make  the  steak  tender.  Papain 
has  also  been  used  in  medicine  in  dissolving  the  membranes 
which  occur  in  diphtheria. 

The  papaya  is  eaten  for  the  most  part  in  a  fresh  condition 
and  may  be  had  the  year  round.  In  fact,  there  are  always  ripe 
and  green  fruit  on  the  papaya  tree.  It  is  also  sometimes  stewed 
like  a  squash  and  eaten  as  a  vegetable.  The  fruit  contains  no 
starch  at  any  stage  of  growth.  In  a  ripe  condition  the  papaya 
contains  from  7  to  10  per  cent,  of  sugar  and  about  0.5  per 
cent,  protein. 

GUAVA 

The  common  or  lemon  guava  (Psidium  guajava)  is  a  native 
bush  or  small  tree  of  tropical  America  reaching  a  height  of  3 
to  30  feet.  The  plant  has  been  introduced  into  all  tropical 
and  subtropical  countries,  including  Florida,  where  it  runs  wild, 
bearing  large  crops  of  fruit.  In  Hawaii  and  a  few  other  re- 
gions the  guava  has  become  a  fearful  pest  necessitating  the 
expenditure  of  large  sums  of  money  for  its  eradication.  It 
occurs  throughout  the  Territory  of  Hawaii  in  a  wild  condi- 
tion and  the  fruit  are  collected  for  making  guava  jam  or  jelly. 
Guava  is  cultivated  in  Florida  and  California.  The  leaves 
of  this  tree  are  opposite  and  bright  green,  the  flowers  are  four- 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

petaled  and  white, being  nearly  sessile  in  the  axiles  of  the  leaves. 
The  fruit  is  2,  to  4  inches  in  diameter,  with  a  yellow  rind  when 
ripe  and  somewhat  resembling  a  lemon  in  appearance.  The 
flesh  is  pink  and  full  of  seeds.  The  peculiar  aroma  of  the 
fresh  fruit  is  usually  not  well  liked  on  first  acquaintance.  The 
strawberry  guava  (P.  cattleianum)  is  a  small  tree  attaining 
a  height  of  20  feet  and  bearing  thicker  and  smaller  leaves 
than  lemon  guava.  The  fruit  is  much  smaller,  being  24  to  13/2 
inches  in  diameter  and  of  a  dark  crimson  or  maroon  color. 
For  use  as  a  fresh  fruit  the  flavor  is  far  superior  to  that  of 
the  lemon  guava  but  the  strawberry  guava  is  less  desirable 
for  use  in  jams  and  jellies.  The  tree  bears  within  2  or  3  years 
from  seeding  and  is  cultivated  in  both  Florida  and  California. 
The  guava  fruit  contains  4  to  10  per  cent,  of  sugar  and  I  per 
cent,  of  protein.  As  already  indicated,  the  lemon  guava  is 
extremely  well  adapted  for  use  in  making  jams  and  jellies. 
A  considerable  industry  in  this  product  has  been  established 
in  Hawaii,  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  Florida,  and  elsewhere.  Guava 
jelly  or  jam  is  almost  universally  well  liked  even  on  first  ac- 
quaintance and  there  seems  to  be  good  prospect  for  a  rather 
large  extension  of  this  industry. 


FEIJOA 

The  feijoa  is  a  guava-like  shrub  5  to  15  feet  high,  native  of 
Paraguay,  Brazil,  Uruguay,  and  Argentina.  Its  botanical  name 
is  Feijoa  sellowiana.  The  leaves  resemble  those  of  the  olive 
and  are  silver-gray  beneath.  The  flowers  are  white  and  with 
four  petals  and  the  fruit  is  about  2  inches  long  and  il/2  inches 
thick.  The  feijoa  fruit  is  of  a  green  color  or  often  with  a 
slight  crimson  blush  on  one  side,  and  the  seed,  while  dis- 
tributed in  large  numbers  through  the  pulp  of  the  fruit,  as  in 
the  guava,  are  less  objectionable  than  guava  seed  on  account 
of  their  small  size.  The  feijoa  has  a  flavor  somewhat  re- 
sembling a  mixture  of  the  pineapple  and  strawberry  and  is 


ROSELLE;  THE  THICK  CALYX  Is  THE  EDIBLE  PART 


CHERI MOVER,  ONE  OF  THE  CUSTARD  APPLES 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  123 

eaten  fresh  or  in  jams  or  jellies.  The  busli  thrives  best  in 
a  moderately  dry  climate.  It  is  propagated  either  by  seed  or 
cuttings  and  the  usual  planting  distance  is  15  by  15  feet.  Out- 
side of  South  America  the  feijoa  is  cultivated  in  France,  Italy, 
and  various  other  subtropical  regions.  It  was  introduced  into 
the  United  States  in  1900  and  a  considerable  industry  in  pro- 
ducing feijoa  has  been  developed  in  California,  where  the  fruit 
may  be  found  upon  the  market  in  season. 


POMEGRANATE 

The  pomegranate  (Punica  granatum)  is  a  bush  or  small  tree 
native  to  the  Mediterranean  region  and  south  Asia  and  is  now 
cultivated  everywhere  in  the  Tropics  and  subtropics,  including 
the  Southern  States  and  California.  The  pomegranate  is 
grown  both  for  ornamental  purposes  and  for  its  fruit.  The 
bush  reaches  a  height  of  6  to  20  feet.  The  calyx  of  the  flowers 
is  red  and  thick,  the  petals  are  of  an  unusually  brilliant  scarlet 
color,  and  the  leaves  are  glossy.  The  fruit  when  ripe  is  red, 
orange,  or  yellow  in  color,  about  2  to  4  inches  in  diameter,  with 
a  tough  rind  and  with  crimson  acid  pulp  in  which  the  numer- 
ous seed  are  embedded.  In  localities  north  of  the  Equator 
the  pomegranate  usually  fruits  from  September  to  December. 
It  is  propagated  by  cuttings.  The  pulp  of  the  fruit  is  eaten 
raw  or  is  used  in  cooling  drinks  or  sometimes  condensed  into 
sirups.  Superior  varieties  may  be  perpetuated  by  budding  or 
grafting.  Certain  varieties  of  the  pomegranate  have  only  a 
few  seed  and  a  much  larger  percentage  of  pulp  than  the  com- 
mon varieties.  The  pulp  of  the  fruit  contains  about  6  per 
cent,  of  sugar.  The  rind  has  a  high  percentage  of  tannin  and 
has  occasionally  been  used  as  a  source  of  tannin.  The  pome- 
granate is  commonly  allowed  to  grow  in  dooryards  without 
much  attention  but  where  it  is  cultivated  commercially  the 
usual  planting  distance  is  8  by  8  feet. 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 


TAMARIND 

The  tamarind  (  Tamarindus  indica)  is  a  large  rather  graceful 
tree,  native  of  tropical  Asia  and  Africa.  It  is  found  almost 
everywhere  in  tropical  countries,  being  considered  as  a  valu- 
able shade  tree  and  source  of  food.  The  tamarind  is  a  stately 
leguminous  tree  with  pinnate  leaves,  like  those  of  the  acacia, 
and  yellowish-red  flowers  about  I  inch  across.  The  tree  bears 
jointed  moniliform  brown  pods  2  to  $  inches  in  length  which 
are  filled  with  a  sweet  sugary  pulp  much  used  in  cooling  drinks 
and  for  making  jam  and  also  a  medicine.  The  tree  is  propa- 
gated either  by  seed  or  cuttings.  In  trade  "Tamarinds"  are 
the  whole  pods  of  the  tamarind  tree.  This  tree  fruits  gen- 
erally in  January  and  February.  On  the  mainland  of  the 
United  States  it  is  grown  in  Florida  and  California.  While 
the  tamarind  is  a  leguminous  tree  with  characteristic  pods, 
it  is  here  classed  with  fruits  because  as  a  food  product  it  is 
used  in  jams  and  for  other  purposes  in  the  manner  of  fruits. 
The  tamarind  pods  contain  3.5  per  cent,  of  protein  and  21  per 
cent,  of  sugar.  In  India  tamarind  seeds  are  universally  eaten 
by  the  natives. 

UTCHI 

The  litchi  (Nephelium  litchi)  is  a  small  tree  native  of  China 
with  dense  foliage  of  rich  green,  shiny  leaves,  racemes  of 
greenish  flowers,  and  clusters  of  spherical  fruit  about  I  inch 
in  diameter.  The  skin  of  the  fruit  is  wine-red  or  brown  in 
color,  and  the  fruit  ripens  usually  in  June.  Each  fruit  con- 
tains one  seed  in  a  firm  jellylike  whitish  pulp  or  aril  of  de- 
licious flavor.  The  litchi  is  cultivated  throughout  the  Tropics, 
especially  in  China,  Cochin  China,  and  India.  In  China  the 
production  of  dried  litchi  fruit  is  a  large  industry.  Dried 
litchis  are  shipped  to  the  United  States  and  Europe  in  con- 
siderable quantities.  There  are  several  varieties  of  quite  un- 
like excellence.  The  tree  is  best  propagated  by  grafting. 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  125 

When  grown  from  seed  the  litchi  does  not  fruit  until  10  years 
of  age  or  older.  The  fresh  fruit  contains  1^2  per  cent,  of  pro- 
tein and  8.5  per  cent,  of  sugar.  In  a  dried  condition  the  rind 
becomes  a  thin  papery  shell,  while  the  sweet  pulp  shrinks 
away  from  the  rind  in  a  mass  surrounding  the  seed.  The  litchi 
was  brought  to  Florida  in  1886  and  is  grown  in  various  locali- 
ties in  the  southern  part  of  the  State  but  apparently  has  not 
done  well. 

The  longan  (N.  longana)  is  a  native  of  Eastern  Bengal.  The 
tree  and  fruit  much  resemble  those  of  the  litchi  but  the  fruit 
is  of  inferior  flavor  and  value. 

The  rambutan  (N.  lappaceum)  is  a  large  fine  tree  with  good 
spread  of  branches.  It  is  a  native  of  the  Federated  Malay 
States.  The  fruit  is  produced  in  clusters  and  is  orange  or 
red  in  color  and  about  J^  inch  in  diameter.  Like  the  litchi, 
the  fruit  has  one  seed  which  is  surrounded  with  a  white  acid 
pulp  of  rather  agreeable  flavor.  The  rambutan  is  propagated 
by  seed  or  grafting  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  is  little  cultivated 
anywhere. 

ROSELLE 

The  roselle  (Hibiscus  sabdariffa)  is  an  annual  semishrubby 
mallow  about  4  to  10  feet  high  with  palmately  five-parted 
leaves  and  handsome  sessile  yellow  flowers  with  a  crimson 
eye.  It  is  a  native  of  the  West  Indies  and  is  now  quite  ex- 
tensively cultivated  in  India,  Queensland,  Ceylon,  the  West  In- 
dies, Hawaii,  the  Philippines,  Florida,  and  California.  The 
edible  portion  of  the  fruit  consists  of  the  greatly  thickened 
calyx  leaves  which  are  of  a  brilliant  crimson  or  wine  color 
when  ripe.  The  fruit  ripens  about  3  weeks  after  flowering. 

The  roselle  is  propagated  by  seed  either  planted  in  the  field 
or  in  the  nursery,  from  which  seedlings  are  later  transplanted 
when  they  reach  a  height  of  6  to  18  inches.  The  best  variety 
of  roselle  is  perhaps  the  Victor.  A  poor  variety  with  small 
fruit  has  been  introduced  into  various  countries  from  Africa 


126  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

but  does  not  seem  to  be  of  much  promise.  North  of  the  Equa- 
tor the  roselle  is  planted  in  February  or  March  with  a  spacing 
4  by  4  feet  or  6  by  6  feet.  The  fruit  is  ready  for  harvest 
in  November  and  December.  In  Hawaii  it  has  been  found  that 
March  is  decidedly  the  best  month  for  planting  roselle.  If 
planted  later  it  ripens  its  fruit  as  early  as  if  it  had  been  planted 
in  March  but  the  fruit  is  inferior  in  quality  and  the  yield  is 
considerably  reduced. 

In  1914,  about  220  acres  of  roselle  were  planted  on  the  Island 
of  Maui  between  the  young  trees  of  a  ceara  rubber  plan- 
tation. The  planting  distance  adopted  was  5  by  5  feet.  The 
district  in  which  the  roselle  was  planted  was  one  of  high  rain- 
fall, averaging  about  150  inches  per  year.  The  plants  yielded 
at  the  rate  of  10  pounds  of  fruit  per  plant  or  approximately 
17,000  pounds  of  fresh  fruit  per  acre.  This  is  far  above  the 
average  yield,  which  may  be  taken  as  being  about  5,000  pounds 
per  acre.  The  roselle  fruit  will  not  stand  shipment  in  a  fresh 
condition.  It  must,  therefore,  be  dried  on  the  plantation. 
Moreover,  if  the  atmosphere  is  humid  it  is  necessary  to  provide 
artificial  heat  for  drying.  If  large  drying  rooms  are  con- 
structed in  which  a  temperature  of  120°  to  140°  F.  can  be  main- 
tained, the  fruit  requires  from  24  to  48  hours  for  desiccation. 
In  drying  roselle  it  has  been  found  that  10  pounds  of  green 
fruit  make  I  pound  of  dried  material. 

The  only  portion  of  the  fruit  used  for  edible  purposes  is 
the  calyx.  The  seed  pod  is  removed  either  after  picking  or 
is  separated  from  the  calyx  at  the  time  of  picking.  The  har- 
vesting of  the  crop  is  the  most  expensive  operation  in  con- 
nection with  the  growing  of  roselle. 

A  firm  has  been  organized  in  Chicago  to  handle  the  roselle 
crop  on  a  large  scale.  This  firm  has  encouraged  the  produc- 
tion of  roselle  in  Queensland,  Hawaii,  Mexico,  and  elsewhere, 
and  has  purchased  all  the  product  in  a  dried  form.  In  1914, 
the  product  amounted  to  about  500,000  pounds  of  the  dried 
fruit.  This  material  makes  a  most  excellent  and  delicious 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  127 

jam  or  jelly  and  has  also  been  used  as  a  basis  of  a  fruit  juice 
which  is  proposed  as  a  rival  for  grape  juice.  The  color  of  the 
juice  is  a  beautiful  wine-red  and  the  flavor  is  quite  satisfactory. 

The  leaves  of  the  roselle  are  used  to  some  extent  for  boiled 
greens  in  Hawaii  and  are  used  in  curries  in  India.  Roselle 
seeds  are  quite  commonly  used  as  poultry  feed  and  the  bast 
in  the  bark  has  been  extensively  used  for  fiber.  In  fact,  for 
many  years  roselle  was  grown  in  India  chiefly  as  a  fiber  plant. 
This  matter  is  discussed  under  fibers. 

Roselle  is  a  good  example  of  a  fruit  which,  while  possessing 
an  excellent  color  and  flavor  in  any  preparation  for  which  it 
is  used,  has  little  nutritive  value.  The  fresh  fruit  contains 
about  i  per  cent,  of  protein,  2,  per  cent,  of  acid,  and  about  0.2 
per  cent,  of  sugar.  The  flavor  of  roselle  jelly  somewhat 
resembles  that  of  the  cranberry  but  is  perhaps  more  delicate. 


MANGOSTEEN 

Many  writers  on  tropical  fruits  have  considered  the  man- 
gosteen  as  the  most  delicious  of  all  known  fruits,  but  this  is 
a  matter  of  taste.  The  mangosteen  (Garcinia  mangostana) 
is  a  tree  of  medium  size  native  to  the  Federated  Malay  States. 
The  leaves  are  large  and  glossy  green  and  the  tree  comes  into 
bearing  at  about  10  years  of  age.  The  fruit  is  purplish-brown, 
spherical  in  shape,  and  2  or  3  inches  in  diameter.  The  rind 
is  thick,  tough,  and  leathery  and  surrounds  the  white  edible 
pulp  in  which  the  seed  are  embedded.  Each  fruit  contains 
from  one  to  4  or  5  seed,  but  often  only  one  of  these  seed  is 
fully  developed.  The  mangosteen  thrives  best  at  low  altitudes 
in  hot  moist  districts.  It  is  therefore  strictly  tropical  in  dis- 
tribution. The  tree  which  ultimately  attains  a  height  of  20  to 
30  feet  is  of  extremely  slow  growth.  Seedling  mangosteens 
are  inferior  in  flavor  and  other  qualities  to  grafted  varieties. 
Most  mangosteens,  however,  are  seedlings  since  thus  far  little 
attention  has  been  given  to  artificial  methods  of  propagation. 


128  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

The  seeds  are  commonly  planted  single  in  pots  and  the  seedlings 
are  transplanted  when  they  reach  a  height  of  about  2,  feet.  The 
mangosteen  has  no  commercial  importance. 


CUSTARD  APPLES 
Sour  Sop,  Sweet  Sop,  Cherimoyer,  and  Bull's  Heart 

Among  the  various  species  of  custard  apple  known  in  the 
Tropics  the  four  just  named  are  best  known  and  most  widely 
used.  The  sour  sop  (Anona  muricata)  is  a  native  of  the  West 
Indies.  It  is  a  quick-growing  shrub  or  tree  which  attains  a 
height  of  15  to  20  feet  and  bears  ovate  or  reniform  fruit 
weighing  4  to  10  pounds  and  covered  with  flexible  green 
prickles.  The  pulp  of  the  fruit  is  white  and  contains  large  black 
seeds.  The  sour  sop  has  a  sweet-acid  flavor  and  is  eaten  either 
out  of  hand  or  in  ices  and  cool  drinks.  The  sour  sop  has 
become  widely  distributed  throughout  tropical  countries. 

The  bull's  heart  (A.  reticulata)  is  a  bushy  tree  with  large 
smooth  heart-shaped  fruit  of  a  yellow  and  reddish-brown 
color.  This  tree  is  a  native  of  the  West  Indies  but  is  quite 
widely  cultivated  in  the  Oriental  Tropics.  The  fruit  is  rather 
insipid. 

The  sweet  sop  (A.  squamosa),  also  called  custard  apple  or 
sugar  apple,  is  a  small  tree  native  of  Asia  and  Central  America 
and  is  now  widely  cultivated  in  the  Tropics  and  subtropics. 
The  fruit  is  about  the  size  of  an  apple  and  the  rind  of  the 
fruit  is  formed  of  scales  which  when  ripe  break  away  from 
the  white,  sw  >et,  granular  pulp.  The  tree  thrives  best  in  dry 
localities  up  tc  an  altitude  of  2,500  feet.  The  sweet  sop  is  prop- 
agated by  seed,  cuttings,  or  grafting.  The  fruit  weighs  about 
i*/2  pounds  but  varies  greatly  in  size  in  different  localities. 
Each  fruit  contains  from  50  to  60  seed.  The  sweet  sop  con- 
tains i  to  2  per  cent,  protein  and  16  to  18  per  cent,  sugar.  The 
customary  planting  distance  for  this  tree  is  about  10  by  10  feet. 

The  cherimoyer  (A.  cherimolla)  is  a  small  tree  native  of 


*"•; 


OLIVIER  VARIETY  OF  LOQUAT 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  129 

South  America  and  of  the  West  Indies.  It  bears  green  round 
fruit  2  to  $  inches  in  diameter  and  weighs  2  or  3  pounds,  with 
a  pitted  rind.  The  opinions  expressed  as  to  the  flavor  of  this 
fruit  must  be  purely  personal  since  it  is  highly  esteemed  by 
some  and  detested  by  others.  The  cherimoyer  is  propagated  by 
grafting.  The  tree  appears  to  prefer  dry  hills.  It  is  widely 
cultivated  in  Madeira,  Canary  Islands,  and  also  to  some  extent 
throughout  all  tropical  countries.  It  thrives  best  perhaps  in 
stony  soil  and  the  planting  distance  is  10  by  10  feet.  There 
is  a  great  variation  in  the  quality  and  flavor  of  the  fruit  of 
different  varieties.  The  best  varieties  are  propagated  by  graft- 
ing. The  fruit  commonly  contains  1.5  per  cent,  protein  and 
about  1 8  per  cent,  sugar. 

Sour  sop,  sweet  sop,  cherimoyer,  and  other  custard  apples 
grow  and  fruit  in  Florida,  but  the  cherimoyer  does  not  always 
fruit  well.  It  has  been  found  that  it  is  pollinated  by  insects. 
Crosses  have  been  made  between  the  sweet  sop  and  cherimoyer, 
which  promise  to  do  better  than  either  of  the  parent  forms. 

LOQUAT 

The  loquat  (Eriobotrya  faponica)  is  a  small  or  medium- 
sized  tree,  native  of  China,  and  extensively  cultivated  in  Japan, 
India,  Australia,  Italy,  Sicily,  and  to  some  extent  in  Hawaii, 
California,  Florida,  Georgia,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana.  The 
only  commercial  cultivation  of  loquat  in  the  United  States  is  in 
California.  The  loquat  is  an  evergreen  tree,  rather  closely 
branched,  and  much  used  as  an  ornamental  as  well  as  for  its 
fruit.  The  leaves  are  alternate,  dentate,  densely  tomentose  be- 
neath, and  the  small  cream-colored  flowers  are  borne  in  ter- 
minal panicles.  The  fruit  is  pear-shaped,  about  I  to  il/t 
inches  in  length,  and  lemon-yellow  or  orange-red  in  color,  with 
I  to  4  or  more  large  black  seed  and  a  small  amount  of  pulp 
with  acid-agreeable  flavor. 

The  loquat  is  propagated  by  seed,  cuttings,  budding,  or  graft- 


130  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

ing.  Seedling  loquats  are  of  poor  quality.  Cuttings  are 
rather  slow  in  development  and  uncertain.  The  preferred 
method  of  propagation  is  by  budding  and  the  quince,  or  seed- 
ling loquat,  is  most  used  for  stock  upon  which  to  insert  the 
bud.  In  California,  the  trees  are  planted  about  12  by  24  feet 
apart.  Budded  trees  begin  bearing  at  the  age  of  4  or  5  years 
and  reach  full  bearing  at  10  years  of  age,  when  the  yield  is 
about  200  pounds  of  fruit  per  tree.  The  fruit  matures  in 
the  spring.  Loquats  are  consumed  chiefly  as  fresh  fruit  but 
are  also  used  in  making  jelly,  jam,  and  preserves.  The  fruit 
is  well  adapted  for  this  purpose,  and  the  flavor  is  delicate 
and  extremely  agreeable.  There  are  perhaps  100  or  more  well 
known  varieties  of  loquat  but  the  varieties  most  prized  in 
California  are  Early  Red,  Thales,  Champaign,  Advance,  and 
Victor.  The  loquat  thrives  within  about  the  same  temperature 
limits  as  are  required  by  lemons.  The  fresh  fruit  contains  4 
per  cent,  of  sugar. 

MALAY  APPLE,  SURINAM  CHERRY,  ROSE  APPLE 

These  three  tropical  fruits  are  closely  related  botanically, 
and  it  seems  desirable,  therefore,  to  refer  to  them  briefly  in 
conjunction  with  one  another. 

The  Malay  apple  (Eugenia  malaccensis)  is  a  handsome  tree 
native  to  Malaya  and  attains  a  height  of  20  to  50  feet.  The 
tree  bears  dense  racemes  of  red  flowers  in  graceful  pompons 
and  later  a  profusion  of  bright  red  fruit  with  a  white  pithy 
pulp.  In  Hawaii,  the  fruit  is  called  Mountain  apple.  Each 
fruit  has  one  large  seed.  The  tree  is  propagated  by  seed  but 
as  a  matter  of  fact  has  not  been  widely  cultivated.  In  some 
parts  of  Hawaii  it  is  a  common  forest  tree  occurring  in  large 
areas.  The  fruit  of  the  Malay  apple  is  only  sparingly  seen  on 
the  market.  The  skin  is  unusually  thin  and  delicate  and  is 
therefore  easily  injured  in  shipment.  It  can  be  shipped  only 
short  distances,  perhaps  within  the  limit  of  24  hours.  The 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  131 

fruit  is  eaten  fresh,  in  which  state  it  has  an  agreeable  but  not 
very  pronounced  flavor,  or  may  be  used  in  making  vinegar. 
The  fruit  contains  6.8  per  cent,  of  sugar. 

The  Surinam  cherry  (Eugenia  mlcheli)  is  a  small  tree  na- 
tive of  Brazil.  It  bears  a  round,  ribbed  fruit  I  inch  in  diame- 
ter, of  bright  red  color,  somewhat  resembling  the  tomato.  The 
pulp  of  the  Surinam  cherry  is  too  acid  tot  eat  fresh,  but  is 
quite  extensively  used  in  preserves.  This  fruit  is  also  called 
the  Brazil  cherry.  The  tree  bears  small  white  flowers  and  is 
propagated  by  seed.  The  fruit  contains  I  per  cent,  protein  and 
6  per  cent,  sugar. 

The  rose  apple  (E.  jambos)  is  a  tree  of  medium  size,  native 
of  India.  It  bears  fragrant  rose-colored  fruit  of  sweet-acid 
flavor,  and  is  il/2  inches  in  diameter.  This  fruit  is  much  used 
in  preserves.  The  tree  thrives  in  moist  districts  up  to  an  alti- 
tude of  3,000  feet.  It  is  cultivated  in  Ceylon  and  to  a  less 
extent  in  Hawaii  and  other  tropical  countries.  The  fruit  is 
usually  of  inferior  quality.  The  flowers  of  this  tree  are  large 
and  bear  numerous  long  white  stamens.  The  rose  apple  in 
fresh  condition  contains  12  per  cent,  sugar.  It  is  grown  in 
California  for  its  foliage  or  ornamental  flowers  but  does  not 
fruit  in  that  state. 

CAPE  GOOSEBERRY 

The  Cape  gooseberry  (Phy satis  peruviana)  is  native  of  Peru 
but  is  now  grown  everywhere,  even  in  some  of  the  Northern 
States  in  this  country.  It  is  a  straggling,  more  or  less  upright, 
herbaceous  plant  belonging  to  the  same  family  with  the  potato 
and  tomato.  On  the  mainland  of  the  United  States  it  usually 
attains  a  height  of  10  to  18  inches,  but  in  Hawaii  and  other 
tropical  regions  it  reaches  a  height  of  1^2  to  5  feet,  with  a 
spread  of  6  to  10  feet.  The  leaves  are  irregularly  toothed 
and  heart-shaped  at  the  base  and  very  pubescent.  The  flowers 
are  pale  yellow  and  about  J^  inch  in  diameter.  The  fruit  when 
ripe  is  greenish-yellow,  spherical,  and  the  size  of  large  marbles. 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

The  fruit  is  surrounded  by  a  loose  papery  husk.  It  is  eaten 
either  raw  or  in  sauce,  pies,  and  jam.  In  Hawaii  the  Cape 
gooseberry  is  called  poha  and  is  cultivated  to  a  considerable 
extent.  The  fruit  ships  well  and  is  sent  to  Honolulu  in  large 
quantities  from  the  Island  of  Hawaii.  The  fruit  contains  2 
per  cent,  protein  and  8  per  cent,  of  sugar.  In  a  fresh  condi- 
tion the  Cape  gooseberry  is  decidedly  laxative. 

PASSION  FRUIT 

A  number  of  closely  related  species  of  passion  vine  bear 
edible  fruit.  The  water  lemon  (Passiflora  lauri folia)  is  a 
climbing  vine,  native  of  the  West  Indies,  which  bears  yellow 
fruit  about  the  size  and  shape  of  a  goose  egg.  The  rind  is 
tough  and  leathery  and  the  numerous  seed  are  embedded  in 
a  gelatinous  pulp.  This  species  of  passion  fruit  is  widely 
cultivated  in  Hawaii.  The  passion  fruit  so  widely  cultivated 
in  India  and  Australia  is  Passiflora  edulis  and  has  a  purple 
rind.  The  granadilla  (P.  quadrangularls)  is  perhaps  the 
most  vigorous  grower  of  all  the  species  of  passion  fruit.  It 
is  a  climbing  vine,  native  of  tropical  America,  and  has  become 
quite  generally  distributed  throughout  the  Tropics.  The  fruit 
is  oblong  and  attains  a  large  size,  being  often  6  to  8  inches  long 
and  3  or  4  inches  in  diameter. 

The  water  lemon  carries  well  in  cold  storage  and  may  be 
safely  held  at  a  temperature  of  32°  F.  for  3  months  or  longer. 
Their  fine  foliage  and  handsome  flowers  make  all  of  these 
species  suitable  for  ornamental  purposes. 

MAMMEE  APPLE 

The  Mammee  apple  (Mammea  americana)  is  a  native  of 
South  America  and  the  West  Indies.  The  tree  reaches  a  height 
of  35  to  60  feet  and  bears  white  fragrant  flowers  and  spherical, 
round,  brown,  hard-shelled  fruit  3  to  5  inches  in  diameter, 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  133 

with  one  or  more  seeds  and  a  yellow,  sweet  aromatic  pulp. 
The  fruit  is  eaten  fresh,  stewed,  or  preserved,  but  the  flavor 
is  not  commonly  well  liked.  The  flowers  of  the  Mammee 
apple  yield  by  distillation  an  essential  oil  used  in  liqueurs  under 
the  name  eau  de  creole.  The  tree  is  propagated  by  seed.  It 
thrives  well  in  Florida,  where  it  bears  fruit  of  the  usual  size 
and  quality. 

WAMPI 

The  wampi  (Clausena  lansium)  is  closely  related  to  citrus 
belonging  in  the  same  family  with  these  fruits.  It  is  a  small 
tree  attaining  a  height  of  1 8  to  20  feet  with  a  luxuriant  de- 
velopment of  smooth  pinnates  leaves  and  small  dense  panicles 
of  white  fragrant  flowers.  The  wampi  is  native  of  southern 
China.  The  fruit  develops  in  clusters  like  the  grape,  the  in- 
dividual fruit  being  nearly  spherical  and  the  size  of  a  large 
marble.  The  rind  is  rough  and  leathery.  The  fruit  contains 
I  to  3  seed  and  the  juicy  pulp  possesses  an  agreeable  acid  aro- 
matic flavor.  The  wampi  is  not  well  suited  for  dessert  fruit 
but  may  be  used  preferably  in  preserves  and  for  flavoring 
meat  curries.  For  this  purpose  both  the  leaves  and  the  fruit 
may  be  used.  The  tree  is  propagated  either  by  seed  or  by 
layering. 

AMATUNGULA 

The  amatungula  or  Natal  plum  (Carissa  grandiflora)  is 
a  South  African  fruiting  shrub  which  was  introduced  by  the 
U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  and  was  later  received  for 
experiment  in  Hawaii.  This  plant  has  become  quite  widely 
distributed  as  a  hedge  and  ornamental  as  well  as  a  fruit  bush. 
The  bush  has  a  densely  branching  habit  and  bears  bright 
green  leathery  leaves  and  numerous  thorns  on  the  small 
branches.  The  flowers  somewhat  resemble  those  of  the  or- 
ange, being  a  pure  white  and  slightly  fragrant.  The  fruit 
is  egg-shaped  and  about  the  size  of  a  plum,  the  color  being 


134  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

a  brilliant  crimson.  The  flavor  of  the  fruit  is  acid  and  slightly 
bitter  and  is  considered  agreeable  by  some  and  practically 
worthless  by  others  as  a  fresh  fruit.  It  may  be  eaten  either  out 
of  hand  or  may  be  used  in  the  manufacture  of  jams  and 
jellies.  In  India  and  Ceylon  the  fruit  is  quite  widely  used  for 
pickling  and  in  preserves.  The  Natal  plum  contains  about  12 
per  cent,  of  sugar. 

STAR  APPLE 

The  Star  apple  is  a  handsome  tree,  native  of  West  Indies, 
with  unusually  fine  foliage,  which  is  dark,  shiny  green  above 
and  golden  brown  beneath.  The  botanical  name  of  the  tree 
is  Chrysophyllum  cainito.  There  are  several  varieties  of  the 
Star  apple,  some  of  which  bear  purplish  and  others  green  fruit. 
The  fruit  is  filled  with  a  white  and  rather  sticky  latex  until 
ripe,  when  the  jellylike  pulp  around  the  seed  has  an  agree- 
able sweet  flavor.  The  name  is  due  to  the  radiate  or  star- 
like  seed  cavities  which  are  conspicuous  when  the  fruit  is 
cut  across.  The  Star  apple  is  not  only  a  very  satisfactory  orna- 
mental but  the  fruit  is  distinctly  agreeable  in  flavor  and 
occupies  a  rather  important  place  in  the  list  of  tropical  fruits 
which  have  not  attained  a  commercial  standing.  North  of  the 
Equator  the  fruit  commonly  ripens  from  February  to  April.  It 
may  be  safely  held  in  cold  storage  and  endures  shipping  very 
well.  The  Star  apple  contains  2.3  per  cent,  protein  and  4.5 
per  cent,  sugar. 

DURIAN 

The  durian  (Durio  zibethinus)  is  a  large,  handsome  pyrami- 
dal tree,  native  of  the  Malay  Archipelago,  and  commonly 
cultivated  in  the  Oriental  Tropics.  The  durian  fruit  is  round 
or  oval  and  thickly  armed  with  prickles.  It  is  borne  on  the 
older  branches,  is  of  a  yellowish  color  when  ripe,  and  of  an 
extremely  offensive  odor  to  all  except  those  who  have  acquired 
a  taste  for  the  fruit.  The  durian  bears  fruit  twice  a  year. 


ROSE  APPLE,  FLOWERS  AND  FRUIT 


PORTION    OF    PASSION    VINE    WITH    FRUIT 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  135 

The  spiny  fruit  rind  when  broken  open  exposes  a  five-segment 
fruit  with  a  pulp  of  civet  odor  surrounding  the  seed.  Superior 
varieties  are  propagated  by  layering.  The  durian  thrives  only 
in  a  hot,  moist  climate  and  the  seed  remain  viable  only  a  few 
days  after  removal  from  the  fruit.  The  durian  fruit  weighs 
from  5  to  10  pounds.  It  is  a  conspicuous  example  among  many 
which  could  be  named  of  tropical  fruits  about  which  violently 
opposed  opinions  exist  as  to  their  flavor. 


CERIMAN 

The  ceriman  (Monster a  deliciosa)  is  a  large  epiphytic 
creeper,  native  to  Mexico,  with  large  leaves  18  to  36  inches 
long  on  long  petioles  and  with  numerous  elliptical  perfora- 
tions. The  flower  is  large,  white,  and  calla-like  and  the  fruit 
appears  as  a  conical  spadix  5  to  8  inches  long  and  2  inches  in 
diameter.  It  is  covered  with  hexagonal  scales  which  are  easily 
removed  when  the  fruit  is  ripe.  In  fact,  the  looseness  of  the 
scales  is  about  the  only  external  evidence  of  the  ripeness  of  the 
fruit.  After  attaining  nearly  full  size,  the  fruit  may  require  5 
or  6  months  in  ripening.  The  flavor  of  the  ceriman  is  not 
easily  described.  It  is  somewhat  like  that  of  a  mixture  of 
honey,  pineapples,  and  bananas,  and  to  most  persons  is  rather 
sickish  sweet.  The  plant  is  propagated  by  cuttings.  It  may 
be  grown  in  Florida  in  half  shade  like  pineapples,  and  in 
Florida  the  fruit  ripens  in  14  to  18  months  after  flowering. 
The  ceriman  fruit  contains  i  per  cent,  protein  and  16  per  cent, 
sugar. 

JUJUBE 

The  jujube  (Zisyphus  jujuba)  is  a  slow-growing,  medium- 
sized,  thorny  tree,  native  of  New  Zealand  and  Federated  Ma- 
lay States.  It  attains  a  height  of  30  to  50  feet  and  bears  ovate 
leaves  which  are  tawny  beneath  and  small  flowers  in  axillary 
cymes.  The  white,  yellow,  or  red  fruit  is  I  to  2  inches  long 


136  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

and  y*  to  I  inch  in  thickness.  The  jujube  is  generally  prop- 
agated by  seed  and  the  fruit  is  borne  in  October  or  Novem- 
ber. It  is  much  liked  by  the  natives  in  India  and  elsewhere, 
but  Europeans  and  Americans  do  not  acquire  a  liking  for  the 
fruit  except  as  a  deliberately  cultivated  habit.  This  is  due  to 
the  peculiar  and  somewhat  offensive  odor  of  the  fruit.  The 
jujube  is  grown  somewhat  sparingly  in  California,  Florida, 
and  other  Southern  States.  It  is  used  in  the  preparation  of 
sirups,  confections,  and  lozenges.  The  dried  fruit  of  Z.  vul- 
gar is  is  also  an  article  of  commerce. 


SAPODILLA 

The  sapodilla  (Achras  sapota)  is  a  tree  25  by  30  feet  high 
with  thick,  leathery,  shiny  leaves  and  native  of  Central  America 
and  the  West  Indies.  It  bears  two  crops  of  fruit  annually,  in 
August  and  February.  The  gum  and  tannin  are  quite  abun- 
dant in  the  green  fruit  which  in  appearance  resembles  the 
potato,  but  the  ripe  fruit  is  edible.  The  fruit  contains  in  the 
ripe  condition  a  brown,  juicy  pulp  surrounding  the  black  seeds. 
The  sapodilla  is  propagated  by  seed  or  grafting  and  thrives 
up  to  an  altitude  of  3,000  feet.  The  tree  makes  a  very  slow 
growth.  The  latex  of  the  fruit  and  stem  is  the  source  of  chicle 
which  is  discussed  under  rubbers  and  gums.  The  sapodilla 
thrives  in  Florida  as  far  north  as  Palm  Beach.  Fruit  varies 
greatly  in  size  and  flavor.  It  appears  on  the  markets  of 
Florida  and  other  Gulf  States  and  occasionally  in  Washington 
and  New  York  markets. 

CARAMBOLA 

The  carambola  (Averrhoa  carambola)  is  a  small  tree,  native 
of  the  Molucca  Islands.  It  bears  a  pointed  fruit  about  4  inches 
long  with  three  pronounced  wings  or  angles.  The  flavor  is 
sweet,  acid,  and  very  agreeable.  The  fruit  is  used  in  jelly- 
making  and  in  sherbets  and  cool  drinks  or  may  be  eaten  out 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  137 

of  hand.  There  is  a  great  range  of  flavor  among  the  varieties 
of  carambola,  but  the  two  chief  types  are  the  sweet  and  the 
sour  carambola.  The  tree  may  be  used  as  an  ornamental  on 
account  of  its  graceful  habit  of  growth  and  its  handsome  pin- 
nate leaves  which  are  sensitive  to  the  touch.  The  carambola 
contains  from  3  to  5  per  cent,  of  sugar.  A.  bilimbi  is  a  closely 
related  species  of  tree,  bearing  leaves  with  13  to  35  leaflets 
and  a  less  acutely  angled  fruit  which  is  extremely  acid  and 
used  for  the  most  part  only  in  pickles.  The  caramb'la  grows 
satisfactorily  in  Florida.  Either  the  carambola  or  bilimbi  may 
be  propagated  by  the  shield  bud  method  or  by  cuttings. 


BAEL  FRUIT 

The  bael  fruit  is  borne  on  a  small  spiny  tree  (Aegle  mar- 
melos)  which  is  native  to  India.  The  fruit  is  surrounded  with 
a  green  hard  woody  shell  about  2  to  6  inches  in  diameter  and  is 
composed  largely  of  a  sticky  aromatic  pulp  which  is  sometimes 
relished  for  its  flavor  but  is  used  chiefly  for  its  medicinal 
value  in  dysentery.  The  bael  fruit  is  propagated  by  seed.  The 
tree  is  deciduous  and  endures  a  temperature  as  low  as  20°  F. 
The  orange-colored  transparent  gummy  pulp  possesses  an  acid- 
sweet  flavor  not  liked  by  most  Europeans  and  Americans  ex- 
cept when  used  with  other  fruits  in  sherbets.  The  bael  fruit 
is  under  experiment  in  some  of  the  Southern  States. 


OHELO  BERRY 

The  ohelo  berry  is  the  most  important  fruit-bearing  heather 
in  Hawaii.  Its  botanical  name  is  Vaccinium  reticulatum.  It 
is  therefore  in  the  botanical  sense  a  Hawaiian  cranberry.  On 
the  mountain  slopes  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  the  ohelo  berry 
occurs  on  wide  areas  at  elevations  of  4,000  feet  or  higher.  It 
is  a  low  shrub  with  stiff  crowded  branches,  densely  covered 
with  leaves.  The  leaves  are  oblong  or  ovate  and  leathery 


138  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

and  the  flowers  are  reddish-green,  appearing  solitary  in  the 
axils  of  the  leaves.  The  ohelo  berry  is  spherical,  about  Yz  inch 
in  diameter  and  of  a  yellow  or  rose  color.  It  is  used  chiefly  in 
pies  and  sauce.  The  ohelo  berry  contains  0.4  per  cent,  protein 
and  3.7  per  cent,  sugar. 

JAPANESE  PERSIMMON 

The  Japanese  persimmon,  native  of  China  and  Japan,  is  a 
handsome  tree  reaching  a  height  of  40  feet  and  bearing  fine 
foliage  and  yellowish-white  flowers.  Its  botanical  name  is 
Diospyros  kaki  and  the  tree  is  therefore  closely  related  to  the 
common  persimmon  of  the  Southern  States.  In  recent  years 
the  fruit  has  become  a  familiar  object  on  the  markets  of  most 
large  cities.  It  is  orange  or  reddish  in  color,  variously  shaped, 
but  mostly  oval  and  about  3  inches  in  diameter.  There  are 
usually  2  seeds  in  each  fruit  but  some  varieties  are  seedless. 
The  Japanese  persimmon  is  quite  generally  cultivated  through- 
out the  Tropics  and  to  a  smaller  extent  in  California  and  the 
Southern  States. 

WI  APPLE  OR  OTAHEITE  APPLE 

This  is  a  large,  symmetrical,  and  handsome  tree  (Spondias 
dulcis),  native  of  the  Society  Islands.  The  fruit  is  spherical, 
yellowish,  about  2  inches  in  diameter,  with  one  large  seed  sur- 
rounded by  an  acid  pulp.  There  is  much  fiber  throughout  the 
pulp  and  the  flavor  is  not  particularly  attractive,  although  the 
fruit  is  much  liked  by  Orientals  and  Polynesians.  Wi  apple 
contains  about  10  per  cent,  of  sugar. 

ALMOND 

Doubtless  all  readers  are  familiar  with  the  fact  that  most 
of  the  common  nuts  of  commerce  are  raised  in  northern  cli- 
mates. This  fact  becomes  sufficiently  apparent  by  the  mere 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  139 

reference  to  chestnut,  chinquapin,  hazel  nut,  hickory,  pecan, 
walnut,  and  butternut,  all  of  which  are  grown  in  temperate 
climates. 

The  almond  (Prunus  amygdalus)  has  been  grown  experi- 
mentally in  some  of  the  Northern  States  and  would  perhaps 
yield  a  crop  of  nuts  far  north  of  the  present  limits  of  its  com- 
mercial cultivation  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  it  flowers 
very  early  in  the  spring.  The  almond  is  native  of  the  Medi- 
terranean region  and  the  tree  and  flowers  are  much  like  those 
of  the  peach.  There  are  two  general  types  of  almond,  the 
bitter  and  sweet,  the  bitter  almond  being  used  in  making  flavor- 
ing extracts  and  prussic  acid.  The  bitter  almond  is  grown 
chiefly  in  Mediterranean  countries.  In  the  United  States  only 
sweet  almonds  of  the  soft-shelled  group  are  grown  and  the 
only  commercial  industry  of  the  almond  is  in  California.  There 
are  about  1,500,000  almond  trees  in  California,  with  a  product 
of  3,000  tons  of  nuts  per  year.  Among  the  25  or  more  varie- 
ties which  have  been  tested  in  California  the  Nonpareil,  Ne 
Plus  Ultra,  and  Languedoc  are  perhaps  to  be  preferred.  The 
cultural  methods  suitable  for  almond  trees  are  the  same  as 
those  which  are  used  in  peach  production.  The  tree  blooms 
earlier,  however,  and  is  not  as  hardy  as  the  peach.  The  nuts 
are  commonly  bleached  by  sulphuring.  Large  quantities  of  al- 
monds are  produced  in  the  Crimea,  Spain,  Australia,  Tunis,  and 
various  other  subtropical  and  tropical  countries.  In  1914  the 
United  States  imported  19,000,000  pounds  of  almonds. 


BRAZIL  NUT 

This  tree  forms  quite  extensive  forests  along  the  Amazon 
and  Orinoco,  where  it  reaches  a  height  of  100  to  150  feet 
and  a  diameter  of  3  to  4  feet.  The  botanical  name  of  the  tree 
is  Bertholletia  excelsa.  The  leaves  of  the  tree  are  long,  with 
wavy  edges  and  the  round  fruit  is  4  to  6  inches  in  diameter. 


140  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

This  fruit  is  inclosed  in  a  thick  woody  shell  which  contains 
about  one  dozen  angular  seeds  or  Brazil  nuts.  The  tree  is 
propagated  by  seed  or  layering.  The  Brazil  nuts  of  commerce 
come  chiefly  from  South  America  but  the  tree  is  also  quite 
widely  cultivated  in  the  Oriental  Tropics,  particularly  in  Ceylon 
and  the  Federated  Malay  States. 


PILI  NUT 

The  Pili  nut  (Canarium  commune)  is  a  large  and  beautiful 
tree  with  an  unusually  extensive  development  of  buttressing 
roots.  The  tree  bears  a  purple  plum-like  fruit  containing  a 
seed  or  kernel  of  excellent  flavor.  The  Pili  nut  is  native  of 
Malay  and  at  present  is  quite  largely  exported  from  the 
Philippines.  It  is  also  cultivated  in  Java,  where  it  is  called  the 
Java  almond.  It  is  an  excellent  avenue  tree,  is  propagated  by 
seed,  and  thrives  up  to  an  altitude  of  1,000  feet. 


CASHEW  NUT 

The  Cashew  nut  is  borne  on  a  tree  30  to  40  feet  high,  native 
of  the  West  Indies,  and  known  to  botanists  as  Anacardium 
occidentale.  It  is  now  cultivated  throughout  the  Tropics.  The 
parts  of  the  fruit  are  rather  anomalous  in  their  structure  and 
arrangement.  The  swollen  stalk  of  the  fruit  is  known  as  the 
Cashew  apple  and  is  used  for  preserves.  The  Cashew  apple 
has  an  acid  astringent  flavor  and  is  2  to  4  inches  long.  The 
kidney-shaped  nut,  about  I  inch  long,  is  borne  at  the  tip  of 
the  Cashew  apple.  The  nut  is  commonly  roasted  and  used  as 
a  flavoring  material  in  confectionery  and  for  other  purposes. 
An  intoxicating  drink,  known  as  "kaju,"  is  made  by  ferment- 
ing the  Cashew  apple.  All  parts  of  the  fruit  are  used  for 
medical  purposes.  The  Cashew  nut  thrives  in  the  dry  districts 
of  tropical  countries  and  near  sea  level. 


AMATUNGULA    OR    NATAL    PLUM,    FRUIT    AND    FLOWER 


SAPODILLA   FROM    FLORIDA 


FRUITS  AND  NUTS  141 

PISTACHIO  NUT 

The  Pistachio  nut  (Pistacia  vera)  is  a  native  of  Syria,  the 
Canaries,  and  Mexico.  It  is  also  widely  cultivated  in  various 
parts  of  the  Tropics,  particularly  India,  and  has  been  grown 
with  success  in  California,  Florida,  and  other  Southern  States. 
The  tree  reaches  a  height  of  20  feet.  The  leaves  are  alternate 
and  trifoliate  and  the  small  flowers  are  borne  in  panicles.  The 
nut  is  about  I  inch  in  length  and  is  composed  of  a  brittle  shell 
and  a  greenish  kernel  of  delicious  almondlike  flavor.  It  is 
extensively  used  in  desserts  and  confectionery.  In  Syria, 
Mesopotamia,  and  Asia  Minor,  the  tree  grows  up  to  an  alti- 
tude of  3,000  feet.  Perhaps  the  most  extensive  plantations 
of  pistachio  nut  are  in  Persia,  Syria,  and  Palestine.  The  tree 
yields  a  resin  resembling  the  mastic  resin  of  Pistacia  lentiscus. 
Large  quantities  of  pistachio  nuts  are  shipped  from  Afghanis- 
tan to  India,  where  they  are  used  as  a  regular  article  of  food, 
being  fried  in  butter.  As  already  indicated,  the  pistachio  nut 
is  used  in  confectionery  and  ice  cream.  The  nut  contains  about 
60  per  cent,  of  oil,  which  is  sometimes  used  in  medicine. 

QUEENSLAND  NUT 

The  Queensland  nut  is  a  tree  of  medium  size,  native  of 
Australia,  and  known  to  botanists  as  Macadamia  ternifolia. 
The  tree  attains  a  height  of  20  to  50  feet  and  bears  dark  green 
shiny  leaves  with  spines  along  the  edge  like  those  of  the  holly 
leaf.  The  tree  is  propagated  by  seed.  The  nuts  are  l/2  inch 
in  diameter,  nearly  spherical,  and  of  excellent  flavor,  but  the 
shell  is  tough  and  hard  to  crack.  The  Queensland  nut  grows  at 
elevations  up  to  2,000  feet  and  likes  a  fairly  heavy  rainfall. 
The  nut  contains  19  per  cent,  protein  and  66  per  cent.  fat. 


CHAPTER   X 
STARCHY   FOODS 

THE  starchy  foods  in  common  use  by  the  inhabitants  of 
tropical  countries  include  not  only  the  majority  of  the  familiar 
starchy  foods  of  northern  climates  but  also  a  number  of  others 
which  are  grown  exclusively  or  chiefly  in  the  Tropics.  In 
most  tropical  countries  corn,  wheat,  barley,  oats,  millets,  buck- 
wheat, and  sorghum  are  of  considerable  importance.  For 
example,  there  are  6,000,000  acres  in  India  devoted  to  the 
production  of  corn,  and  India  stands  third  or  fourth  in  the 
wheat-producing  countries  of  the  world.  Sorghum  is  widely 
used  in  some  parts  of  the  Tropics  as  a  human  food.  In  India, 
for  example,  sorghum  seed  is  extensively  employed  in  making 
bread.  In  addition  to  many  of  the  leguminous  food  plants 
familiar  to  the  inhabitants  of  cold  climates  the  farmers  of  the 
Tropics  also  give  a  great  amount  of  attention  to  pigeon  pea, 
chick  pea,  kulthi,  lablab  bean,  soy  bean,  kidney  bean,  cowpea, 
lentil,  etc.  Among  the  root  crops  of  importance  to  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Tropics  mention  may  be  made  of  potatoes, 
sweet  potatoes,  eggplant,  carrot,  radish,  turnip,  beet,  etc.,  as 
well  as  a  considerable  variety  of  roots  not  grown  in  cold 
climates. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  nearly  all  the  familiar  starchy 
food  plants  are  grown  in  tropical  countries,  the  relative  im- 
portance of  these  plants  is  very  different  in  the  Tropics  from 
what  it  is  in  cold  climates.  A  brief  discussion  of  the  more  im- 
portant starchy  foods  in  general  use  in  tropical  countries  is 
given  in  the  following  paragraphs. 

142 


STARCHY  FOODS  143 

v 

RICE 

Rice  is  the  most  important  of  the  world's  cereals.  To  more 
than  one-half  of  the  population  of  the  world,  rice  is  the  chief 
staple  food.  This  plant,  known  to  botanists  as  Oryza  saliva, 
is  supposed  to  be  a  native  of  tropical  Asia.  It  is  now  culti- 
vated throughout  the  Tropics  and  subtropics  as  well  as  in  the 
warmer  parts  of  the  Temperate  Zones.  Rice  is  not  only  the 
most  important  cereal  but  should  probably  be  considered  the 
most  important  food  plant  in  the  world.  The  world's  crop  of 
rice  is  about  90,000,000,000  pounds,  of  which  63,000,000,000 
are  produced  in  British  India,  9,000,000,000  in  Java,  7,000,- 
000,000  in  Japan,  3,000,000,000  in  Siam,  2,000,000,000  in  Corea 
1,500,000,000  in  Formosa,  1,500,000,000  in  the  Philippines, 
741,000,000  in  the  United  States,  740,000,000  in  Italy,  and 
smaller  quantities  in  other  countries.  In  1914,  Louisiana  pro- 
duced 11,800,000  bushels,  Texas  8,000,000  bushels,  Arkansas 
3,500,000  bushels,  California  800,000  bushels,  and  South  Caro- 
lina 179,000  bushels. 

There  are  two  general  groups  of  rice — lowland  and  upland 
rice.  Upland  rice  is  grown  without  flooding  or  artificial  irri- 
gation in  climates  with  a  fairly  abundant  rainfall.  Lowland 
rice  is  grown  only  under  a  flooding  system  or  as  an  aquatic 
plant.  The  varieties  of  rice  are  almost  innumerable.  More 
than  4,000  varieties  have  been  reported  in  Bengal  alone.  Thou- 
sands of  varieties  bear  names  but  the  synonymy  of  these  varie- 
ties is  much  confused  and  at  present  it  is  quite  impossible 
to  conjecture  the  number  of  really  distinct  varieties  of  rice. 
Most  of  these  varieties  are  of  strictly  local  distribution  and 
have  been  so  since  the  dawn  of  history.  They  may  therefore 
be  geographical  races.  Strictly  local  varieties  of  rice  are  known 
to  have  been  grown  in  Siam  in  the  same  locality  since  records 
have  been  kept  of  the  civilization  of  that  country.  Some  of 
these  varieties  are  known  also  to  have  peculiar  flavors  and 
physical  properties  unlike  any  other  varieties.  The  varieties  of 


144  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

rice  differ  in  size,  shape,  and  color  of  the  grain,  character  of 
straw,  and  fruiting  panicle,  chemical  composition,  and  flavor 
and  culinary  properties.  The  chief  varieties  of  rice  grown 
in  the  United  States  are  Goldseed,  White  rice,  Japan  rice,  and 
Honduras  rice. 

In  the  Southern  States  rice  fields  are  from  60  to  80  acres  in 
extent  on  level  lands,  and  I  to  2  acres  in  area  on  sloping  lands. 
The  seed  is  sown  broadcast  or  in  drills  from  March  15  to  May  I 
at  a  rate  of  I  to  3  bushels  per  acre.  A  light  irrigation  is  given 
to  germinate  the  seed.  Later  the  water  is  turned  on  when  the 
rice  is  8  to  10  inches  high.  The  water  is  then  maintained  at 
a  depth  of  3  to  6  inches,  being  withdrawn  to  facilitate  hoeing. 
The  final  irrigation  continues  until  a  week  before  harvest.  In 
small  fields  and  in  marsh  soils  rice  is  cut  with  a  sickle,  but  in 
large  fields  rice  is  harvested  with  reapers. 

In  nearly  all  tropical  countries  the  method  of  growing  and 
harvesting  rice  is  that  which  has  been  practiced  for  centuries  by 
the  Orientals.  The  Chinese  method  of  growing  rice  may  be 
briefly  described  as  an  illustration  of  the  painstaking  hand 
labor  which  this  race  devotes  to  its  farming  operations.  Rice 
seed  is  first  sprouted  in  bags.  Within  2  or  3  days  a  slight 
sprout  appears  and  the  sprouted  rice  is  then  planted  in  nursery 
beds.  The  young  plants  are  removed  from  nursery  beds  at  the 
age  of  about  20  days  and  planted  in  the  field  at  distances  vary- 
ing from  8  by  8  inches  to  12  by  12  inches  both  ways.  For  this 
purpose  the  field  is  lined  off  in  squares  and  three  or  more 
plants  are  placed  in  each  hole.  The  tips  of  the  leaves  of 
the  young  plants  are  cut  off  before  being  transplanted.  The 
rice  is  then  irrigated  with  flowing  water  for  about  four-fifths 
of  the  time  from  transplanting  to  harvesting.  Rice  is  har- 
vested within  3  to  7  months  from  the  time  of  seeding,  depend- 
ing upon  the  variety.  The  harvesting  and  threshing  of  the 
rice  is  for  the  most  part  done  by  hand  work.  The  Chinese 
harvest  their  rice  with  a  sickle.  Each  handful  of  straw  is  cut 
in  two  near  the  middle  of  the  straw  in  order  that  the  grain 


DASHEEN  TUBER,  TRINIDAD  VARIETY 


STARCHY  FOODS  145 

heads  may  be  laid  upon  the  butts  of  the  straw,  thus  facili- 
tating the  process  of  curing.  The  grain  heads  when  dry  are 
tied  into  bundles  and  shocked,  after  which  the  material  is 
removed  from  the  field  on  the  backs  of  laborers.  Threshing 
is  accomplished  largely  by  tramping  with  horses  and  the 
grain  is  cleaned  by  winnowing.  The  justification  for  all  this 
hand  labor  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese  and  other  Orientals  is 
the  fact  that  transplanted  rice  gives  a  yield  fully  double  that 
of  rice  planted  directly  in  the  field.  The  tedious  method  of 
planting,  harvesting,  and  threshing  rice  according  to  the  Chi- 
nese and  Oriental  custom  would,  of  course,  not  appeal  to  the 
rice  planters  of  the  Southern  States.  The  method,  however, 
rests  on  a  solid  foundation  in  the  countries  where  it  is  prac- 
ticed. In  China,  for  example,  where  the  economic  stress  of 
dense  population  has  been  keenly  felt  for  centuries,  acres  of 
land  are  less  numerous  than  hungry  mouths  to  be  fed.  It 
has  become  necessary,  therefore,  to  produce  more  rice  on  a 
fixed  number  of  acres. 

In  Ceylon,  broadcasting  of  rice  is  occasionally  practiced  in 
a  few  localities  but  the  Chinese  method  generally  prevails 
throughout  the  Oriental  Tropics.  The  yield  of  rice  varies  from 
700  to  3,000  pounds  per  acre  in  tropical  countries.  In  the 
United  States  the  yield  commonly  ranges  from  1,000  to  2,000 
pounds  per  acre.  In  the  Tropics  two  crops  of  rice  annually 
are  possible  with  certain  varieties.  With  other  slow  de- 
veloping varieties  only  one  crop  a  year  is  obtained.  In  China 
and  Japan,  particularly  in  Japan,  rice  is  grown  in  a  continuous 
rotation  with  legumes.  During  the  short  intervals  between 
rice  crops,  legumes  are  planted  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  as 
much  vegetable  substance  as  possible  between  the  harvesting 
of  one  crop  of  rice  and  the  planting  of  the  next  crop.  By  the 
careful  observation  of  this  custom  the  fertility  of  the  soil  has 
been  kept  up  unimpaired. 

In  fertilizer  experiments  with  rice  at  the  Hawaii  Experi- 
ment Station,  it  was  found  that  rice  requires  its  nitrogen  in 


146  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  form  of  ammonia  or  inorganic  nitrogen  which  may  be 
ammonified  and  not  in  the  form  of  nitrate.  These  experiments 
were  continued  on  seven  successive  crops  of  rice  in  the  field 
and  were  repeated  in  soil  and  sand  cultures  in  pots.  It  was 
clearly  demonstrated  not  only  that  rice  requires  its  nitrogen 
in  the  form  of  ammonia  rather  than  nitrate  but  that  rice  cannot 
be  grown  to  maturity  in  the  soil  or  cultures  where  nitrogen 
occurs  only  in  the  form  of  nitrates.  In  these  experiments  the 
addition  of  nitrate  of  soda  depressed  the  yield  of  rice  below 
that  obtained  on  check  plats  without  any  fertilizer,  while  the 
application  of  sulphate  of  ammonia  to  the  extent  of  150  to 
300  pounds  per  acre  doubled  the  yield  over  that  of  unfertilized 
plats.  These  results  are  readily  understood  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  rice  is  grown  as  an  aquatic  crop,  being  submerged 
under  water  3  to  6  inches  deep  and  that  therefore  nitrification 
cannot  take  place  in  the  puddled  soil.  Organic  nitrogen  in 
leguminous  green  manuring  crops,  however,  can  be  readily 
ammonified  under  these  submerged  conditions  and  from  the 
ammonia  the  rice  plant  derives  the  nitrogen  necessary  for  its 
development.  It  has  also  been  demonstrated  that  practically 
all  of  the  nitrogen  of  the  rice  plant  is  taken  up  from  the  soil 
by  the  time  the  plant  is  two-thirds  grown. 

Rice  is  too  starchy  a  food  for  use  as  an  exclusive  ration  by 
man.  The  organic  phosphorus  and  the  proteid  in  rice  are 
largely  deposited  in  the  outer  portion  of  the  grain,  which  is 
unfortunately  removed  in  the  complete  milling  of  rice.  It  is 
in  many  ways  to  be  regretted  that  so  strong  a  demand  has  been 
developed  for  highly  polished  rice  and  for  white  wheat  flour, 
for  in  milling  these  grains  to  meet  the  market  demands  some 
of  the  most  important  food  elements  are  removed.  The  general 
reader  is  doubtless  familiar  with  the  numerous  scientific  in- 
vestigations which  have  connected  the  eating  of  a  too  exclusive 
diet  of  highly  milled  rice  with  the  development  of  the  disease 
of  malnutrition  known  as  beri-beri.  While  there  may  be  doubt 
as  to  the  universal  connection  of  an  exclusive  milled  rice  diet 


STARCHY  FOODS  147 

with  beri-beri,  it  has  been  definitely  shown  that  the  disease  is 
one  of  malnutrition  and  that  it  is  extremely  common  among 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Oriental  Tropics  who  live  too  exclusively 
on  milled  rice.  Experiments  have  shown  that  valuable  organic 
phosphorus  compounds  are  located  in  the  bran  and  outer  por- 
tion of  the  rice  grain. 

Among  the  by-products  of  the  rice  industry  mention  may  be 
made  of  sake,  a  highly  alcoholic  drink  made  from  rice,  par- 
ticularly by  the  Japanese,  and  also  rice  bran,  middlings,  and 
hulls.  The  Chinese  also  make  a  rice  whisky  called  samshu. 
Rice  bran  and  middlings  are  important  feeding  stuffs  for 
domesticated  animals.  Rice  hulls  are  useless  for  feeding  pur- 
poses. In  fact,  they  contain  so  much  silica  as  to  be  injurious 
or  positively  dangerous  when  used  in  feeds.  Complaints  have 
occasionally  been  made  that  rice  hulls  have  been  ground  by 
unscrupulous  feed  dealers  and  mixed  with  other  feeding  stuffs. 
Some  experiments  have  been  made  with  rice  hulls  in  the  manu- 
facture of  explosives.  The  hulls  are  also  of  use  as  packing 
material  and  for  cheap  insulation  in  the  walls  of  icehouses. 

MILLETS 

A  great  variety  of  plants  which  may  be  conveniently  grouped 
under  the  general  head  millets  are  used  in  the  Tropics  chiefly 
as  human  food.  These  plants  belong  to  several  species  of  cul- 
tivated grasses,  including  Italian  millet,  broom-corn  millet, 
Japanese  millet,  guinea  corn,  pearl  millet,  ragi  (Eleusme  cora- 
cana),  Job's  tears  (Coix  lachryma),  etc.  These  plants,  roughly 
grouped  under  the  term  millets,  may  perhaps  be  considered  as 
second  to  rice  in  importance  as  a  source  of  human  food  in  the 
Oriental  Tropics.  Millet  seed  is  a  staple  food  of  about  one- 
fourth  of  the  world's  population.  In  India,  more  than  40,000,- 
ooo  acres  are  devoted  to  the  production  of  millets  for  human 
food.  In  Japan,  China,  and  Corea  also  enormous  quantities 
of  millet  are  produced.  Many  of  the  poorer  class  of  natives 


148  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

in  Japan  and  elsewhere  cannot  afford  to  buy  rice  and  there- 
fore live  upon  millet  as  their  staple  food.  Millet  seed  is  not 
only  used  in  making  bread,  but  is  cooked  in  various  other 
forms  and  in  many  mixtures  of  other  food  materials. 

QUINOA 

When  the  Spanish  explorers  first  came  to  South  America 
they  found  the  natives  making  common  use  of  quinoa  (Cheno- 
podium  quinoa)  as  a  food.  This  is  an  annual  plant  native  to 
Peru,  but  occurring  throughout  the  west  coast  of  South  Amer- 
ica and  northward  into  Central  America.  The  plant  is  closely 
related  to  the  common  weed  lamb's  quarters  and  yields  a 
heavy  crop  of  edible  seeds.  Quinoa  has  also  been  cultivated  in 
Europe,  California,  and  the  Southern  States,  where  it  has 
been  grown  for  its  leaves,  which  are  used  like  spinach. 

Quinoa  attains  a  height  of  4  to  6  feet,  and  the  leaves  are 
thin  and  distinctly  three-lobed.  The  seeds  are  used  especially 
in  Peru  and  Chile  in  soups,  in  making  bread  and  cakes,  and  in 
brewing  a  kind  of  beer.  Quinoa  ash  has  been  mixed  with  the 
leaves  of  cocain  by  the  native  laborers  of  South  America  in 
order  to  give  the  leaves  more  flavor  for  chewing  purposes. 
There  are  at  least  three  varieties  of  quinoa,  the  white,  red,  and 
black-seeded.  The  white-seeded  variety  is  most  esteemed  in 
Lima  and  is  the  only  one  cultivated  in  Europe.  The  seeds 
contain  38  per  cent,  of  starch,  5  per  cent,  of  sugar,  19  per  cent. 
of  protein,  and  5  per  cent,  of  fat.  The  seed  crop  matures 
within  5  or  6  months  after  planting. 

Quinoa  has  furnished  food  for  millions  of  natives  in  South 
America.  It  has  quite  commonly  been  known  as  petty  rice 
and  by  other  names.  The  seeds  are  of  about  the  size  of  a  white 
mustard  seed.  Flour  made  from  them  resembles  oatmeal.  The 
red-seeded  variety  of  quinoa  contains  a  bitter  principle  which 
has  sometimes  been  used  in  medicine.  The  seed  of  quinoa  is 
also  widely  fed  to  poultry.  This  plant  has  not  thrived  well  in 
California,  where  it  seems  to  be  too  subject  to  insect  attacks. 


STARCHY  FOODS  149 

SAGO 

Sago  is  derived  from  a  graceful  palm  (Metroxylon  rumphii), 
native  of  Malay  Archipelago  and  somewhat  resembling  the 
coconut  palm  in  general  appearance.  The  tree  reaches  a  height 
of  25  to  40  feet,  and,  like  so  many  others  of  the  palm  family, 
bears  long,  graceful,  pinnate  leaves.  Sago  is  an  important 
source  of  food  in  southern  India,  Malaya,  Borneo,  Java,  Cele- 
bes, Sumatra,  Ceylon,  and  elsewhere.  The  trees  grow  wild  in 
swampy  land  or  are  sometimes  cultivated  to  a  small  extent. 
The  sago  palm  if  left  to  itself  will  live  15  to  20  years,  gradually 
dying  after  the  flowering  period.  For  food  purposes  the  tree 
is  felled  just  as  it  begins  to  flower,  usually  at  about  10  years 
of  age. 

The  sago  palm  is  commonly  propagated  by  suckers  from 
the  old  stumps.  When  harvested  for  food  purposes  the  trunk 
is  at  once  cut  into  3-foot  lengths  which  are  then  split  length- 
wise. The  soft  fibrous  pith  is  removed  by  a  process  of  re- 
peated washing  and  straining  somewhat  in  the  manner  in  which 
cassava  starch  is  obtained.  The  fiber  is  separated  from  the 
starch  which  settles  out  of  the  water  and  is  purified  by  a  fur- 
ther washing.  Granulated  sago  is  the  form  in  which  this 
product  is  commonly  seen  on  the  market.  It  is  prepared  by 
making  a  paste  of  the  original  sago  meal,  by  mixing  it  with 
water,  and  pressing  the  paste  through  a  sieve  with  meshes  of 
the  proper  size.  The  trunk  of  the  sago  palm  tree  yields  from 
800  to  1,200  pounds  of  sago.  Several  other  food  products  of 
a  similar  nature  are  used  to  some  extent  under  the  name  sago. 
For  example,  the  seeds  of  Cycas  circinalis  of  Ceylon  are  of 
a  starchy  nature  and  are  used  in  making  a  kind  of  sago  which 
is  eaten  by  the  natives. 

CASSAVA 

Cassava,  also  called  manioc  plant,  is  a  small  shrubby  peren- 
nial related  to  the  Ceara  rubber  tree  and  occurring  under  two 


150  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

common  species,  the  bitter  cassava  (Manihot  utilissima)  and 
sweet  cassava  (M.  aipi).  These  plants  are  native  of  South 
America  but  are  now  grown  throughout  the  tropical  and  sub- 
tropical world.  The  plants  attain  a  height  of  6  to  8  feet  and 
bear  palmately  divided  leaves,  with  7  divisions  in  the  bitter 
cassava  and  5  divisions  in  the  sweet  cassava.  The  bitter  cas- 
sava is  more  widely  used  in  the  Tropics  than  is  the  sweet  cas- 
sava. All  varieties  of  both  species  may  contain  prussic  acid 
but  the  bitter  cassava  contains  the  highest  percentage  of  this 
poison.  The  prussic  acid  in  cassava  is  located  just  under  the 
bark  of  the  roots  and  is  easily  removed  in  the  preparation  of 
starch  and  tapioca  from  these  roots.  Cassava  is  an  important 
human  food  product,  being  used  by  the  natives  of  India  and 
other  tropical  countries  like  sweet  potatoes  and  is  also  exten- 
sively employed  as  a  stock  food. 

Cassava  is  commonly  propagated  by  stem  cuttings.  The  ma- 
ture stems  are  cut  into  sections  8  to  10  inches  long  and  partly 
buried  in  the  soil,  being  inserted  commonly  in  a  slanting  direc- 
tion at  regular  intervals  in  rows.  The  root  or  rhizomes  are 
ready  for  harvest  7  to  12  months  after  planting.  The  cut- 
tings are  commonly  planted  in  rows  4  feet  apart  and  about  16 
inches  in  the  row.  In  Florida,  where  considerable  attention 
has  been  given  to  cassava,  the  yield  is  about  6^2  tons  of  roots 
per  acre  but  exceptional  yields  of  10  to  12  tons  have  been  ob- 
tained. The  yields  in  tropical  countries  are,  as  a  rule,  higher 
than  those  obtained  in  Florida.  The  roots  of  a  single  plant 
sometimes  weigh  from  25  to  5°  pounds.  These  roots  vary 
greatly  in  shape,  growing  sometimes  in  the  form  of  long  strands 
2  or  3  inches  in  diameter,  and  at  other  times  in  the  form  of 
huge  conical  thickened  masses. 

Cassava  is  used  for  a  number  of  purposes.  The  milky  juice 
of  the  roots  is  concentrated  by  boiling  into  a  thick  sauce  which 
is  used,  after  seasoning,  by  the  natives  of  Guiana  under  the 
name  "cassaree"  as  a  sauce  or  for  preserving  meat.  The 
tubers  may  be  peeled  and  boiled  or  baked  as  food  for  man  and 


BREADFRUIT  TREE  IN  FULL  BEARING,  HONOLULU 


STARCHY  FOODS  151 

beast.  It  is  in  the  manufacture  of  starch,  however,  that  cas- 
sava finds  its  chief  importance.  In  making  starch  the  tubers 
are  peeled  and  grated,  the  milky  juice  is  expressed,  the  whole 
grated  mass  is  then  washed  and  strained  until  the  fiber  is  re- 
moved, after  which  the  starch  is  freed  of  other  impurities  by 
repeated  washings  and  dried  in  the  sun  or  in  earthen  ovens. 
Tapioca  is  made  from  cassava  starch  by  heating  the  starch 
gently  on  iron  plates  until  it  flocculates  into  the  well  known 
tapioca  granules.  The  United  States  imports  of  tapioca  and 
sago  in  1914  amounted  to  a  value  of  $1,640,000.  The  world's 
supply  of  tapioca  is  derived  largely  from  Brazil  and  the  Straits 
Settlements.  As  already  indicated,  cassava  has  been  grown  for 
many  years  in  Florida  with  success.  Little  attention,  however, 
was  given  to  the  crop  in  Florida  as  a  source  of  starch  and 
tapioca.  The  roots  are  mostly  used  as  a  stock  feed  after 
cooking.  It  has  been  found  that  tapioca  roots  may  be  used 
with  economy  in  fattening  beef  and  pork. 


ARROWROOT 

The  true  arrowroot  (Maranta  arundinacea)  is  a  native  of 
tropical  America  belonging  to  the  same  family  with  ginger. 
The  arrowroot  is  a  perennial  herb  with  large  lanceolate  leaves 
and  white  root-stocks  or  rhizomes  I  to  2  feet  in  length  and  I  to 
2  inches  in  diameter.  The  plant  is  propagated  by  divisions 
of  the  rhizomes  in  rows  3  feet  apart  and  I  foot  apart  in 
the  row.  The  tubers  may  be  harvested  about  8  to  12  months 
from  the  time  of  planting.  A  good  yield  of  arrowroot  is  5 
tons  of  tubers  per  acre.  The  tubers  contain  25  per  cent, 
starch.  The  yield  of  prepared  arrowroot  per  acre  is  about 
1,500  pounds.  Arrowroot  starch  may  be  obtained  by  grat- 
ing, washing,  and  straining  the  tubers  by  the  method  used  with 
cassava.  Like  cassava,  also,  the  plant  seems  to  exhaust  the 
soil  quickly,  thus  making  necessary  a  system  of  rotation. 
The  best  quality  of  arrowroot  comes  from  Bermuda,  but  the 


152  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

largest  supply  is  received  from  St.  Vincent,  Barbados,  and 
Ceylon.  Arrowroot  starch  is  considered  to  be  very  easily  di- 
gested and  is  generally  recommended  for  invalids  who  have 
found  difficulty  in  digesting  the  starch  from  potatoes  and  other 
plants. 

Tacca  (T.  pinnatifida)  is  a  stemless  plant,  native  of  Ceylon 
and  the  Pacific  Islands,  bearing  3-parted  leaves  on  petioles  I  to 
3  feet  long.  A  scape  of  small  greenish  flowers  is  developed 
at  maturity  and  potato-like  tuberous  roots  which  yield  a  starch 
equal  to  arrowroot  and  called  pia  by  the  Polynesians.  This 
plant  was  formerly  much  cultivated  in  Hawaii.  It  is  still 
cultivated  to  a  large  extent  in  India,  Africa,  and  in  various 
other  tropical  countries.  The  tubers  are  dug  after  the  leaves 
fall  and  are  grated,  washed,  and  dried  much  like  sago  and 
cassava.  The  plant  is  propagated  by  the  division  of  the  roots 
and  is  commonly  planted  in  rows  3  feet  apart  and  18  inches 
apart  in  the  row. 

SWEET  POTATOES 

Sweet  potatoes  grow  everywhere  throughout  the  Tropics 
and  subtropics.  They  occur  in  a  great  number  of  varieties 
with  white,  yellow,  and  purple  flowers,  and  with  all  shapes 
and  sizes  of  leaves  and  of  tubers.  The  tubers  vary  in  size 
from  a  few  ounces  to  several  pounds  and  in  color  from  pure 
white  to  dark  purple.  The  flesh  of  the  tubers  of  some  varie- 
ties is  also  purple  and  in  addition  white-fleshed  and  yellow- 
fleshed  forms  are  abundant.  The  sweet  potato  escapes  from 
cultivation  and  grows  almost  as  a  weed  in  some  tropical  coun- 
tries, as,  for  example,  in  Cuba.  In  the  Tropics  the  sweet 
potato  is  propagated  chiefly  by  stem  cuttings.  The  tubers 
mature  within  3  to  7  months  after  planting.  The  sweet  potato 
is  an  extremely  important  food  product  in  all  tropical  coun- 
tries since  it  may  be  obtained  the  year  round  and  bears  trans- 
portation well.  Sweet  potatoes  have  been  shipped  from  Hawaii 
to  the  mainland  during  the  off  season,  particularly  May  to 


STARCHY  FOODS  153 

July,  when  a  good  quality  of  sweet  potato  will  bring  from  4 
to  8  cents  per  pound  wholesale. 

Lleren  (Calathea  allouya)  is  a  perennial  herb,  native  of 
South  America,  belonging  with  the  same  family  as  ginger 
and  attaining  a  height  of  2  feet.  It  develops  long  canna-like 
leaves  and  numerous  potato-like  tubers.  Lleren  is  propagated 
by  crown  divisions  and  is  planted  in  rows  4  feet  apart  and  2 
feet  apart  in  the  row.  The  tubers  may  be  harvested  about  10 
months  after  planting.  Lleren  is  much  liked  by  the  natives  in 
the  West  Indies  but  the  flavor  is  disagreeable  to  most  white 
persons. 

YAM 

Many  species  of  Dioscorea,  or  yams,  native  of  East  Indies 
and  West  Indies,  are  used  for  food  in  tropical  countries.  These 
plants  are  perennial,  herbaceous  climbers  with  underground 
tubers  varying  in  size  in  different  species  from  a  few  inches 
to  2  feet  in  length  and  from  a  few  ounces  to  40  pounds  in 
weight.  Some  species  of  yams  also  have  aerial  tubers.  Yams 
are  most  extensively  cultivated  in  the  West  Indies  and  South 
America,  where  they  constitute  an  important  source  of  food. 
They  are  eaten  boiled  or  baked,  like  potatoes.  Yams  are 
propagated  by  a  division  of  the  crown  and  the  usual  planting 
distance  is  2  by  4  feet.  Pole  supports  are  used  for  the  vines. 
The  tubers  are  harvested  about  7  to  10  months  after  planting. 
The  common  wild  yams  of  Hawaii  are  known  as  uhi  and  hoi. 
Yams  contain  15  to  24  per  cent,  of  starch  and  some  of  them 
are  of  fairly  good  flavor.  In  the  East  Indies  the  favorite  yam 
is  D.  globosa.  The  largest  yielder  is  D.  alata.  The  common 
yam  of  the  West  Indies  is  D.  sativa. 

QUEENSLAND  ARROWROOT 

The  Queensland  arrowroot  (Canna  edulis)  is  a  native  of 
the  West  Indies  but  is  perhaps  most  widely  cultivated  in  Aits- 


154  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

tralia  and  the  Pacific  Islands.  It  is  a  perennial  herb  belonging 
to  the  family  Scitamineae  and  bears  large  broad  leaves  with 
a  pronounced  bronze  sheen.  The  plant  stands  about  3  to  6 
feet  high  and  develops  5  to  10  purplish  tubers  at  the  base. 
These  tubers  are  cooked  and  eaten  like  taro  or  are  used  in 
the  production  of  the  "Queensland  arrowroot"  of  the  trade. 
The  starch  grains  in  this  product  are  larger  and  more  easily 
soluble  in  water  than  those  of  the  true  arrowroot  and  the 
material  is  especially  recommended  for  children  and  invalids. 
Queensland  arrowroot  is  propagated  by  crown  divisions  and 
the  planting  distance  is  2  to  4  feet.  The  crop  matures  within 
6  to  10  months  after  planting.  In  Porto  Rico  an  average  yield 
is  about  15  tons  of  roots  per  acre.  In  experiments  in  Queens- 
land it  has  been  found  that  about  9  tons  of  roots  yield  I  ton 
of  prepared  arrowroot.  In  India  it  appears  that  the  Queens- 
land arrowroot  prefers  a  more  sandy  soil  than  the  true  arrow- 
root. In  that  country  the  Queensland  arrowroot  is  planted 
in  rows  6  or  7  feet  apart  and  4  or  5  feet  apart  in  the  row.  It 
has  been  found  that  roots  may  live  in  the  ground  for  two  sea- 
sons, if  desired,  without  suffering  loss.  A  yield  of  12  to  40 
tons  of  roots  per  acre  has  been  obtained  in  India. 


UDO 

In  recent  years  some  interest  has  been  awakened  in  a  native 
Chinese  plant  known  as  udo  (Aralia  cordata}.  This  plant  has 
long  been  widely  cultivated  in  Japan  and  elsewhere  in  the 
Orient.  It  has  been  introduced  into  California  and  the  South- 
ern States.  Udo  is  a  shrubby  perennial  suitable  for  orna- 
mental purposes  on  account  of  its  leaves.  The  plant  reaches 
a  height  of  10  feet,  with  inconspicuous  flowers  in  spherical  um- 
bels like  those  of  our  common  sarsaparilla  or  ginseng.  The 
root  stalks  are  large  and  fleshy.  Udo  is  propagated  by  seeds 
or  cuttings  and  the  planting  distance  is  4  by  4  feet.  The  young 
shoots  are  blanched  by  various  shading  devices.  Shoots  which 


CHAYOTE,  FRUIT  AND  PORTION  OF  STEM 


STARCHY  FOODS  155 

spring  from  3-year-old  roots  should  attain  a  height  of  12  to  18 
inches  and  a  diameter  of  i  inch.  The  shoots  must  be  cut  into 
strips  and  soaked  in  water  for  an  hour  or  more  before  boiling. 
They  are  then  used  in  soups,  salads,  and  on  toast.  Few 
people,  however,  outside  of  the  Orient  have  acquired  a  liking 
for  this  plant.  The  roots  are  extensively  used  as  food  in  Japan 
and  China. 

DASHEENS,  YAUTIAS,  TAROS,  TANIERS 

A  number  of  related  plants  belonging  to  the  family  of 
aroids  develop  large  starchy  tubers  which  have  long  been  an 
important  source  of  food  in  tropical  countries.  The  botanical 
name  of  dasheen  is  Colocasia  antiquorum  esculentum.  This 
plant  is  called  taro  or  kalo  by  the  Hawaiians  and  other  Poly- 
nesians. The  botanical  name  of  the  yautia  or  tanier  is  Xan- 
thosoma,  of  which  several  species  have  been  cultivated, 
particularly  sagittifolium,  atrovirens,  and  violaceum.  Certain 
varieties  of  yautia  are  commonly  referred  to  the  genus  Alo- 
casia,  but  since  this  group  of  plants  apparently  does  not  produce 
flowers  its  relationship  is  still  doubtful. 

In  Hawaii  there  are  300  or  more  varietal  names  of  taro 
and  even  after  allowance  is  made  for  synonyms,  it  is  probable 
that  there  are  from  40  to  60  distinct  varieties  of  taro  in  Hawaii. 
Dark  taros  make  the  best  poi.  This  group  of  taro  includes  the 
varieties  known  as  Lihua,  Ele-ele,  Palii,  etc.  The  pink  and 
white  taros  give  the  largest  yields.  This  group  includes 
Kuoho,  Wehiwa,  etc.  Mafia  is  the  commonest  variety  of  yel- 
low taros.  The  taro  is  propagated  by  suckers  called  hulis, 
which  develop  from  the  top  or  side  of  the  tubers.  There  are 
two  main  groups  of  taro  from  a  cultural  standpoint,  the  upland 
and  irrigated  taros.  Upland  taro,  like  upland  rice,  is  grown 
without  irrigation  in  climates  with  a  reasonably  high  rainfall. 
Irrigated  taros,  on  the  other  hand,  are  grown  in  precisely  the 
same  manner  as  rice.  The  areas  planted  to  irrigated  taro  are 
surrounded  by  dikes  just  as  in  rice  fields  for  holding  the  water 


156  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

at  a  certain  depth.  The  water  is  kept  flowing  by  constant 
intake  and  outtake. 

Taro  is  planted  at  distances  varying  from  30  by  30  inches 
to  40  by  40  inches.  In  a  study  of  taro  growing  carried  on  by 
the  Hawaii  Experiment  Station  it  was  found  that  within  cer- 
tain limits  the  wider  the  planting  distance  the  larger  the  tubers 
and  the  higher  the  yield  per  acre.  Taro  tubers  mature  in  8  to 
14  months  from  planting,  according  to  the  variety  used.  The 
yield  varies  from  6  to  18  tons  of  tubers  per  acre. 

The  stems  of  some  varieties  are  cooked  as  a  green  vege- 
table. The  tubers,  however,  are  the  product  for  which  taro 
is  raised.  These  tubers  are  eaten  boiled,  like  potatoes,  or  baked 
in  taro  cakes,  but  chiefly  in  the  form  of  poi.  Poi  is  one  of  the 
universal  and  characteristic  food  products  of  the  Polynesian 
race.  It  is  easily  prepared  from  taro  by  boiling  the  taro  tubers 
and  mashing  them  with  the  addition  of  water  into  a  smooth 
sticky  paste.  This  material  is  then  eaten  fresh  or  is  allowed 
to  ferment.  The  poi  is  commonly  considered  an  easy  food 
product  to  digest.  Many  white  settlers  in  Hawaii  acquire  a 
liking  for  the  product,  but  it  cannot  be  said  to  possess  an  agree- 
able flavor  or  appearance.  An  excellent  quality  of  flour  may 
be  prepared  from  taro  tubers  by  cooking,  desiccating,  and 
grinding  the  material.  A  considerable  business  in  the  sale  of 
taro  flour  was  once  worked  up  by  the  taro  growers  of  Hawaii, 
but  was  later  allowed  to  lapse.  Taro  tubers  may  also  be 
shredded  in  a  fresh  condition  and  dried  in  strands  about  the 
size  of  a  lead  pencil.  This  material  may  then  be  used  as  a 
breakfast  food.  In  that  form  the  product  has  an  agreeable 
flavor.  It  requires  boiling  for  at  least  an  hour,  however,  and 
changes  from  a  white  to  a  purple  color  as  a  result  of  boiling. 

With  the  recent  introduction  of  the  dasheen,  or  taro,  into 
Florida,  some  attention  has  been  given  to  a  method  of  blanch- 
ing the  shoots  of  the  taro  plants.  It  has  been  found  that  they 
may  be  readily  blanched  after  which  they  can  be  eaten  like 
asparagus.  While  the  name  taro  is  universally  applied  to  these 


STARCHY  FOODS  157 

plants  by  the  Polynesians,  botanists  have  preferred  the  name 
dasheen.  All  the  taros,  dasheens,  and  yautias  belong  together 
in  the  same  family  with  the  calla  lily.  The  flowers  of  the  taro 
are  large,  white,  and  calla-like.  The  leaves,  moreover,  greatly 
resemble  those  of  the  calla  lily,  but  are,  of  course,  much  larger. 
All  of  these  plants  are  succulent  and  some  of  them,  as  just  indi- 
cated, produce  large  leaves  like  the  caladium  or  elephant  ear. 
The  leaf  stem  or  petiole  varies  in  length  from  I  to  6  feet.  In 
the  yautia  the  leaf  blade  is  sagittate,  or  arrow-shaped,  with  an 
open  sinus.  In  the  taro  the  leaf  is  peltate  with  the  leaf  stem 
attached  about  half  way  from  the  center  to  the  basal  margin. 
Taros  have  been  cultivated  for  centuries  in  Japan  and  China 
and  the  Polynesian  Islands.  The  areas  devoted  to  these  plants 
are  of  considerable  extent  in  all  tropical  countries  and  the 
tubers  therefore  constitute  an  important  article  of  food.  The 
starch  in  the  different  varieties  of  taro  ranges  from  6  to  18  per 
cent. 

BREADFRUIT 

The  well  known  breadfruit  (Artocarpus  incisa)  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  ornamental  trees  of  the  Tropics.  It  is  a  native 
of  the  Pacific  Islands,  but  has  gradually  been  distributed  quite 
widely  through  other  parts  of  the  world.  The  tree  possesses 
a  graceful  habit  of  growth  and  develops  large,  shiny,  incised 
leaves  and  a  globular  fruit  4  to  6  inches  in  diameter.  The  tree 
attains  a  height  of  30  to  60  feet  and  is  highly  prized  as  a  shade 
tree  as  well  as  a  source  of  an  important  food  product.  Most 
varieties  of  breadfruit  have  no  seed.  The  tree  is  propagated  by 
root  suckers. 

Breadfruit  is  much  used  in  the  Orient  in  curries.  In  all 
tropical  countries  where  it  occurs  breadfruit  is  also  eaten  baked 
or  roasted  as  a  vegetable.  In  a  baked  form  it  has  a  very  agree- 
able flavor  which  usually  appeals  to  the  new  comer  in  the 
Tropics  at  first  acquaintance.  Breadfruit  may  also  be  roasted, 
dried,  and  ground  into  flour  and  is  used  in  making  poi.  A. 


158  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

nobilis  of  the  lower  parts  of  Ceylon  is  a  large  breadfruit  tree 
with  columnar  fruit  6  to  8  inches  long  and  2  inches  in  diam- 
eter. This  fruit  is  largely  eaten  by  the  natives  with  curries. 

The  jack  fruit  (A.  integri folia)  is  a  huge  tree  native  of 
Southern  India  which  bears  ellipsoid  green  fruit  covered  with 
hexagonal  scales.  These  fruits  vary  in  size  from  10  to  60 
pounds  and  are  borne  on  the  trunk  and  branches  of  the  tree. 
The  fruits  are  sometimes  eaten  by  the  natives,  especially  the 
nut-like  seeds  in  the  stringy  pulp.  The  pulp,  however,  is  fibrous 
and  filled  with  an  extremely  sticky  latex  which  coagulates  into 
a  rubber-like  material. 

CHAYOTE 

Chayote  is  a  common  and  familiar  cucurbit  (Sechium  edule), 
native,  of  West  Indies  and  now  cultivated  generally  in  the 
Tropics.  It  is  a  perennial  creeper  with  pear-shaped,  solid,  one- 
seeded  fruits  weighing  2  or  3  pounds.  The  fruit  is  cooked  and 
eaten  like  a  squash,  which  it  resembles  in  flavor.  The  plant 
is  propagated  by  planting  the  whole  ripe  fruit  containing  the 
seed.  Supports  are  required  for  the  vines  which  climb  to  great 
heights  and  long  distances.  The  chayote  bears  fruit  about  3 
months  after  planting.  The  tuberous  roots  reach  the  size  of 
20  pounds  and  are  prepared  and  eaten  like  yams.  The  roots 
contain  20  per  cent,  of  starch  and  are  of  fairly  good  flavor. 
The  chayote  is  also  widely  used  as  a  hog  feed.  Chayote  is  quite 
extensively  grown  in  Porto  Rico,  Mexico,  tropical  America, 
Algeria,  East  Indies,  Hawaii,  and  the  Philippines.  Under  fav- 
orable conditions  one  vine  will  bear  300  to  500  fruits  a  season. 

LOTUS 

The  Chinese  lotus  (Nelumbium  speciosum),  native  of  Asia 
and  Africa,  is  a  water  lily  with  a  large,  circular,  peltate  leaf, 
resembling  those  of  the  Victoria  regia,  and  white  or  rose-col- 
ored flowers  5  to  8  inches  in  diameter.  The  plant  bears  long, 
moniliform  or  sausage-like  rootstocks,  and  a  curious  receptacle 


STARCHY  FOODS  159 

/ 

which  contains  large  seed.  Both  the  seeds  and  rootstocks  are 
eaten,  especially  by  the  Chinese.  The  rootstocks  contain  about 
70  per  cent,  of  starch.  The  cultivation  of  lotus  in  Hawaii  is 
a  rather  extensive  industry  among  the  Chinese  and  Japanese. 

SEAWEED 

A  large  number  of  seaweeds  are  used  as  human  food  in 
Malaya,  China,  Japan,  and  the  Polynesian  Islands.  The  edible 
seaweeds  include  the  brown,  red,  and  blue-green  species.  In 
Hawaii,  seaweeds  are  known  as  limus.  Hundreds  of  tons  of 
limus,  or  seaweeds,  are  annually "  consumed  in  Hawaii.  No 
luau,  or  native  feast,  is  complete  without  limu.  More  than  70 
species  of  seaweeds  are  used  in  Hawaii  as  food.  Formerly, 
the  Hawaiians  ate  limus  raw.  Now  they  are  eaten  either 
cooked  or  raw.  Limus  contain  in  a  fresh  state  I  to  3  per  cent, 
of  protein  and  10  to  14  per  cent,  of  starch.  Limus  yield  about 
75  per  cent,  of  their  dry  weight  in  gelatine  or  agar-agar. 

TI 

The  well  known  ti  (Cordyline  terminalis)  of  Hawaii,  Poly- 
nesian Islands,  Malaya,  and  China  is  a  short-stemmed  plant 
with  a  tuft  of  lanceolate,  leathery,  shiny  leaves  about  2  to  4 
feet  long  and  panicles  of  greenish  flowers.  The  whole  plant 
attains  a  height  of  5  to  15  feet.  The  root  is  a  thick,  starchy, 
saccharine  structure.  The  roots  are  roasted  and  eaten  as  a  deli- 
cacy. When  roasted  they  have  a  sweet  flavor  resembling  that 
of  caramelized  sugar.  The  roots  are  also  fed  to  pigs  and  other 
stock  and  are  quite  extensively  used  in  fermenting  a  strong 
alcoholic  drink.  In  fact,  ti  roots  are  a  common  source  of  illicit 
moonshine  alcohol  in  Hawaii.  The  ti  leaves  are  generally  used 
as  plates  at  native  feasts  and  for  wrapping  food  and  cut  flow- 
ers. Ti  leaves  have  also  been  shown  to  be  a  valuable  cattle 
feed.  In  some  of  the  Hawaiian  dairies  in  the  mountain  sections 
ti  leaves  constitute  an  important  part  of  the  ration  of  cows. 


CHAPTER  XI 
TOBACCO 

TOBACCO  is  by  no  means  a  crop  which  is  restricted  to  the 
tropical  regions  of  the  world.  In  fact,  it  is  cultivated  through- 
out the  Tropics,  subtropics,  and  Temperate  Zones.  It  was 
originally,  however,  a  native  of  tropical  America  and  the  vari- 
ous forms,  strains,  and  varieties  of  cultivated  tobacco  are  con- 
sidered as  having  originated  from  Nicotiana  tabacum  and  N. 
rustica.  The  world's  crop  of  tobacco  is  at  present  about  2,750,- 
000,000  pounds.  On  the  contiguous  mainland  of  the  United 
States  about  950,000,000  pounds  are  produced,  in  British  India 
450,000,000,  in  Russia  255,000,000,  in  Java  and  Sumatra  180,- 
000,000,  in  Hungary  145,000,000,  in  Japan  111,000,000,  in  the 
Philippines  100,000,000,  in  Cuba  75,000,000,  in  Brazil  65,000,- 
ooo,  in  Mexico  34,000,000,  in  Argentina  31,000,000,  in  Algeria 
21,000,000,  in  Porto  Rico  17,000,000,  and  smaller  quantities  in 
various  other  countries. 

Columbus,  on  his  first  voyage  of  discovery,  found  the  natives 
of  Cuba  smoking  tobacco.  He  made  some  inquiry  regarding 
the  nature  and  properties  of  the  weed  and  carried  the  news 
of  the  use  of  this  plant  to  Europe.  Tobacco  was  introduced 
into  the  botanic  gardens  of  Lisbon  in  1560,  into  France  a  little 
later,  and  in  England  about  1595.  There  is  an  enormous  mass 
of  literature  relating  to  the  discovery  of  the  use  of  'tobacco, 
its  introduction  into  European  countries,  and  the  interesting 
events  which  were  connected  with  its  adoption  by  the  popula- 
tion of  the  European  countries.  A  strict  government  monopoly 
is  maintained  on  tobacco  in  France,  Austria,  Italy,  Roumania, 
Turkey,  and  a  few  other  countries. 

160 


i 


TOBACCO  161 

Tobacco  is  everywhere  cultivated  as  an  annual,  but  in  the 
Tropics  may  live  over  for  several  years.  The  plant  ranges  in 
height  from  2  to  7  feet  and  bears  viscid  leaves  and  stems  with 
a  heavy  odor  and  terminal  panicles  of  whitish,  pale  pink,  or 
rose  pink  flowers.  The  seed  pods  are  well  filled  with  seed  of 
such  minute  size  that  it  requires  about  400,000  seed  to  weigh 
an  ounce.  Tobacco  is  grown  commercially  on  a  great  variety 
of  soils  and  in  all  kinds  of  climates  from  Canada  to  the  Equa- 
tor. Both  soils  and  climate,  however,  greatly  affect  the  growth 
of  the  plant,  the  physical  properties  of  leaf,  the  chemical  com- 
position of  the  leaf,  and  the  aroma.  Cuban,  Philippine,  Su- 
matra, Hawaiian,  and  Egyptian  tobaccos  would  doubtless 
differ  greatly  in  aroma  if  grown  in  these  different  countries 
from  the  same  seed  sample.  The  vuelto  aba  jo  tobacco  of  Pinar 
del  Rio,  Cuba,  is  a  case  in  point.  This  famous  tobacco  is  used 
as  a  filler,  and  despite  numerous  attempts  it  has  not  been 
possible  to  duplicate  it  even  in  other  parts  of  Cuba.  Various 
strains  of  tobacco  have  been  introduced  into  Hawaii  from 
different  countries,  and  while  these  tobaccos  have  grown  satis- 
factorily they  have  shown  different  physical  characters  and  a 
different  flavor  and  aroma  from  those  which  develop  from  the 
same  strain  in  the  country  from  which  they  were  imported. 

Tobacco  seed  is  sown  in  seed  beds.  These  beds  are  almost 
universally  prepared  by  a  special  treatment  of  sterilization  by 
burning.  The  burning  of  logs  on  the  surface  of  the  seed  bed 
or  the  production  of  a  similarly  high  temperature  in  the  soil 
by  any  other  means  has  the  effect  not  only  of  sterilizing  the 
soil  with  regard  to  fungous  diseases  which  might  attack  the 
young  plants,  but  improves  the  tilth  of  the  seed  bed  so  that 
the  growth  of  the  seedlings  is  more  rapid  as  well  as  more  vigor- 
ous. The  seeds  germinate  in  10  to  14  days.  It  requires  about 
one  spoonful  of  seed  to  plant  each  100  square  yards  of  seed 
bed.  The  seedlings  are  transplanted  at  the  age  of  5  or  6  weeks 
in  rows  3^2  to  4  feet  apart  and  14  to  24  inches  apart  in  the 
row.  In  most  tobacco  districts  the  plants  are  topped  as  soon 


162  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

as  the  flower  button  appears.  In  some  localities  the  lower  4 
or  5  leaves  are  removed  at  the  same  time.  This  process  is 
commonly  called  priming.  The  leaves  mature  about  80  to  120 
days  from  the  time  of  transplanting. 

The  process  of  curing  and  fermenting  tobacco  has  received 
a  great  amount  of  technical  attention  from  chemists  and  biolo- 
gists, and  satisfactory  methods  have  been  worked  out  for  dif- 
ferent tobacco  districts  in  the  various  tobacco  producing  coun- 
tries of  the  world.  The  essential  points  in  the  process  of  curing 
tobacco  have  been  thoroughly  investigated  by  Dr.  Garner  of 
the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  and  his  investi- 
gations have  been  utilized  in  the  following  account  of  tobacco 
curing. 

In  all  cases  the  first  requirement  for  good  curing  is  that  the 
tobacco  be  ripe  when  harvested.  The  young  leaf  has  a  rich, 
deep  green  color,  and  the  food-manufacturing  function  of  the 
leaves  is  about  at  its  maximum  when  the  flower  head  begins  to 
appear  and  removal  of  this  flower  head  stimulates  the  plant 
to  a  further  effort  to  reproduce  itself  by  sending  out  secondary 
shoots  or  suckers.  These,  however,  are  at  once  removed  by 
the  grower.  Under  such  treatment  the  substance  of  the  leaf 
is  not  carried  back  into  the  stalk,  but  remains  in  the  body  of 
the  leaf.  The  accumulation  of  a  surplus  food  supply  largely 
in  the  form  of  starch  causes  the  appearance  of  a  lighter  shade 
of  green  and  lightish  or  yellowish  spots  on  the  leaf  which  are 
characteristic  of  the  ripe  leaf.  The  proper  stage  of  ripeness, 
however,  like  most  of  the  other  technical  details  connected 
with  the  growth  and  curing  of  tobacco,  can  be  learned  only  by 
long  practical  experience. 

If  the  ripe  leaf  of  the  tobacco  is  quickly  dried  by  heat  it 
will  never  develop  the  characteristic  aroma  and  flavor  of  to- 
bacco. The  development  of  this  aroma  and  flavor  may  also 
be  prevented  by  subjecting  the  leaf  to  anesthetics.  The  process 
of  curing  is  therefore  considered  as  consisting  essentially  in 
forcing  the  leaves  to  undergo  a  process  of  slow  starvation. 


TOBACCO  163 

Two  general  methods  are  in  vogue  in  harvesting  tobacco  and 
managing  it  in  the  curing  shed.  In  one  of  these  methods  the 
ripe  leaves  are  picked  from  the  stalk  and  threaded  on  strings 
attached  to  sticks  which  allow  room  for  the  leaves  to  hang 
without  touching  one  another  in  the  curing  shed.  By  the  other 
method  the  leaves  are  left  attached  to  the  stalks  and  the  whole 
plant  is  removed  to  the  barn  at  a  stage  when  most  of  the  leaves 
are  in  the  best  condition  of  ripeness.  Most  tobacco  is  cured 
in  the  air  without  the  help  of  artificial  heat  except  during  wet 
weather.  Ventilation  is  provided  in  curing  barns  under  regu- 
lation in  order  to  prevent  the  too  rapid  drying  of  the  leaves. 
When  the  tobacco  is  first  harvested  the  leaves  contain  consider- 
able starch,  but  during  the  curing  process  this  starch  disap- 
pears. The  leaf  is  considered  as  fully  cured  when  all  of  the 
green  color  has  disappeared  and  the  full  development  of  the 
yellow  color  has  taken  place.  At  this  time  the  leaves  are  rather 
uniformly  yellow  or  brown.  The  tobacco  leaf  loses  about  75 
per  cent,  of  its  weight  in  curing,  the  greater  part  of  this  loss 
being  water.  In  cold  or  unusually  wet  weather  artificial  heat 
has  been  utilized  to  considerable  extent,  especially  with  wrap- 
per tobacco.  The  method  has  been  applied  less  to  filler  and 
binder  tobacco.  The  heat  is  generated  by  small  charcoal  fires 
and  by  various  other  methods.  In  the  process  known  as  flue 
curing,  systems  of  pipes  are  provided  in  the  curing  shed  to 
carry  off  the  fuel  gases  and  the  smoke  does  not  come  in  con- 
tact with  tobacco  during  the  curing  process,  which  requires  only 
a  few  days.  Fire  curing  is  a  term  applied  to  the  method  used 
largely  in  the  dark  tobacco  districts  of  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and 
Tennessee.  This  method  consists  in  the  use  of  open  fires  in 
the  curing  shed  and  the  tobacco  is,  therefore,  in  contact  with 
the  smoke  produced  by  the  fires.  This  method  is  used  largely 
in  curing  export  tobaccos. 

When  tobacco  leaves  are  cured  on  the  stalk  the  resulting  loss 
of  weight  is  due  not  only  to  the  evaporation  of  moisture,  but 
also  to  the  fact  that  some  of  the  substance  of  the  leaf  is  trans- 


164  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

ferred  to  the  stalk  during  the  process  of  curing.  It  has  been 
shown  by  experiment  that  tobacco  leaves  lose  from  10  to  12  per 
cent,  more  if  dried  on  the  stalk  than  if  removed  from  the  stalk 
when  green. 

Nearly  all  commercial  tobacco  is  derived  from  Nicotiana 
tabacum.  The  tobacco  from  this  species  includes  the  Mary- 
land, Virginia,  Paraguay,  Cuban,  Philippine,  Seed-leaf,  Lata- 
kia,  Turkish,  Chinese,  and  certain  other  sorts  of  tobacco.  In 
this  species  the  lobes  of  the  corolla  are  pointed  and  the  leaves 
are  nearly  sessile.  N.  rustica  has  distinctly  petioled  leaves  and 
blunt  corolla  lobes.  This  species  is  the  source  of  Hungarian, 
Brazilian,  and  certain  of  the  Asiatic  tobaccos  and  is  always 
of  an  inferior  grade.  The  trade  terms  for  the  commercial  sorts 
of  tobacco  are  numerous  and  the  system  of  classification  of 
grades  of  tobacco  is  very  complicated.  Any  thorough  discus- 
sion of  this  classification  would  lie  outside  the  field  of  the  gen- 
eral reader.  The  terms  export  and  manufacturing  tobacco  are 
used  by  tobacco  dealers  to  indicate  tobaccos  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  smoking  and  chewing  tobacco,  cigarette  tobacco,  and 
snuff.  The  terms  export  and  manufacturing  are,  therefore, 
used  to  distinguish  these  tobaccos  from  cigar  tobacco.  The 
tobacco  which  is  imported  into  the  United  States  consists  prin- 
cipally of  cigar  filler  tobacco  from  Cuba  and  cigar  wrapper 
tobacco  from  Sumatra  and  Borneo.  Importations  of  Turkish 
tobacco  have  also  considerably  increased  in  recent  years.  The 
yield  of  tobacco  varies  greatly  according  to  locality  and  the 
type  of  tobacco.  It  ranges  from  500  to  2,400  pounds  of  cured 
leaf  per  acre.  There  is  an  active  competition  in  the  produc- 
tion of  high-grade  tobaccos,  particularly  fillers,  and  it  has  been 
found  that  the  grower  must  have  at  least  a  5o-acre  crop  in 
order  to  cure  a  sufficient  quantity  for  proper  fermentation.  In 
the  high-grade  tobaccos  this  fermentation  is  brought  about  by 
tying  the  cured  leaves  in  bunches  called  hands  which  are  then 
piled  in  heaps  on  the  floor  of  the  fermentation  house.  The 
heaps  may  be  4  feet  wide  by  8  or  10  feet  long  and  from  4  to  6 


TOBACCO  165 

feet  deep.  The  piles  are  torn  down  and  rearranged  from  time 
to  time  in  order  to  maintain  as  nearly  as  possible  a  uniform 
temperature  throughout  the  mass  of  tobacco. 

The  grading  of  tobacco  is  a  matter  of  technical  skill  acquired 
only  by  years  of  practice.  Accurate  grading  requires  a  quick 
eye  for  minute  differences  in  color.  Skilled  tobacco  graders 
separate  what  to  the  uninitiated  appears  to  be  a  rather  uniform 
grade  of  tobacco  into  15  to  20  color  grades.  The  leaves  are  also 
graded  according  to  size  and  shape.  In-  the  system  adopted 
in  Sumatra  only  about  5  per  cent,  of  a  carefully  cured  crop 
is  considered  worthy  of  being  classed  as  first-grade  wrapper 
tobacco. 

The  agricultural  methods  adopted  in  the  production  of  to- 
bacco vary  greatly  in  different  countries.  In  general,  tobacco 
is  known  to  be  a  crop  which  rather  rapidly  exhausts  soil  for 
further  crops  of  tobacco.  In  some  of  the  tobacco  districts  of 
the  Southern  States  a  system  of  rotation  has  been  adopted 
whereby  tobacco  appears  on  the  same  land  only  once  in  3  or  4 
years.  In  some  of  the  tropical  countries  it  is  considered  unde- 
sirable to  plant  the  same  land  to  tobacco  except  after  an 
interval  of  7  or  8  years.  It  will  thus  be  apparent  that  the 
cultivation  of  tobacco  is  a  special  business  requiring  experience 
in  all  phases  of  the  industry  and  necessitating  definite  plans  of 
rotation  so  that  the  yield  and  quality  of  the  crop  may  be  main- 
tained. 


CHAPTER  XII 
FIBER   PLANTS 

A  LARGE  percentage  of  the  fiber  plants  of  the  world  are  native 
of  the  Tropics  and  are  cultivated  to  the  greatest  extent  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  Tropics,  although  some  of  them,  for  in- 
stance the  conspicuous  example  of  cotton,  are  grown  far  out- 
side of  the  limits  of  the  Tropics.  The  fiber  plants  which  are 
grown  on  a  commercial  scale  in  cold  climates  are  not  very 
numerous,  flax  and  hemp  being  the  chief  ones  aside  from  cot- 
ton. Both  flax  and  hemp  are  also  grown  in  the  Tropics,  but 
flax  has  never  assumed  commercial  importance  as  a  tropical 
crop,  while  hemp  is  grown  in  tropical  countries  chiefly  as  a 
drug  plant  and  not  for  its  fiber.  The  commercial  fibers  of  the 
world  are  derived  from  various  botanical  structures  of  fiber 
plants.  The  fibers  are  obtained  mostly,  however,  from  seed- 
lint,  bark-bast,  fruit-husks,  and  leaves.  The  fibers  discussed 
in  this  chapter  include  those  used  for  thread,  cords,  ropes, 
cables,  fabrics,  paper,  brushes,  mats,  hats,  baskets,  implements, 
etc.  Only  the  important  ones  and  those  which  have  made  a 
place  for  themselves  in  the  markets  of  the  world  or  in  native 
industries  have  been  discussed.  The  number  of  plants  from 
which  valuable  fibers  could  be  obtained  is  very  large.  A  recent 
account  of  the  fiber  plants  of  the  Philippines  mentions  750 
such  plants  in  the  Philippines  alone.  An  attempt  to  discuss 
all  of  the  plants  from  which  fibers  could  be  obtained  would 
make  this  chapter  resemble  a  textbook  of  systematic  botany 
rather  than  a  brief  account  of  the  fibers  which  are  really  of 
importance  in  the  world's  commerce. 

166 


FIBER  PLANTS  167 

COTTON 

Cotton,  beyond  question,  is  the  most  important  of  all  known 
fiber  plants.  The  original  home  of  the  cotton  is  uncertain,  but 
it  was  probably  India  or  Persia.  Cotton  has  been  well  known 
in  India  since  800  B.  C.  and  perhaps  earlier.  All  wild  species 
of  cotton  are  tropical  and  perennial,  but  in  commercial  plan- 
tations the  crop  is  grown  almost  universally  as  an  annual. 

While  the  true  wild  forms  of  cultivated  cottons  are  not 
known  botanically,  names  have  been  given  to  certain  groups  of 
commercial  cottons.  Gossypium  barbadense  is  commonly  con- 
sidered as  including  Sea  Island  and  Egyptian  cottons.  Both  of 
these  forms  of  cotton  produce  yellow  flowers,  smooth  seed, 
that  is  without  short  fuzz,  and  a  long  silky  lint  or  fiber.  G. 
peruvianum  includes  the  Peruvian,  Bolivian,  and  Kidney  cot- 
tons. These  varieties  of  cotton  develop  very  large  leaves,  yel- 
low flowers,  smooth  seed,  and  a  harsh  lint  of  medium  length. 
The  American  Upland  cottons  are  referred  by  botanists  to  G. 
hirsutum.  These  forms  are  invariably  grown  strictly  as  an- 
nuals, the  flowers  are  white,  and  the  seeds  fuzzy.  G.  herbac- 
eum  is  a  closely  related  species,  which  includes  the  short  staple 
Indian  and  Chinese  cottons.  Many  hybrid  cottons  have  been 
produced  and  distributed,  particularly  in  tropical  countries 
with  claims  of  unusual  merit.  Among  these  mention  may  be 
made  of  Caravonica  and  Mamara  cotton.  The  Caravonica  cot- 
ton is  supposed  to  be  a  hybrid  between  the  Sea  Island  and 
Kidney  cottons,  although  the  statements  regarding  its  origin  are 
somewhat  at  variance  with  one  another.  Three  types  of  this 
cotton  may  appear  from  the  same  sample  of  seed,  namely,  a 
practically  pure  Kidney  cotton  with  the  seeds  of  each  boll 
cemented  together,  a  type  like  Sea  Island,  and  another  com- 
monly called  Caravonica  wool,  which  appears  like  a  true  hybrid 
or  blend  between  Sea  Island  and  Kidney  cottons.  The  Cara- 
vonica and  Mamara  cottons  are  not  adapted  to  cold  climates  for 
the  reason  that  a  season  of  7  or  8  months  is  required  for  the 


168  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

production  of  the  crop.  They  may,  however,  be  pruned  back 
so  as  to  produce  three  crops  in  two  years  under  tropical  con- 
ditions. 

The  total  world  production  of  cotton  in  1915  was  about  20,- 
000,000  bales  of  500  pounds  each,  of  which  the  United  States 
produced  11,000,000  bales.  The  crop  of  the  United  States 
has  varied  considerably  in  recent  years,  having  been  as  high 
as  16,000,000  bales  in  one  year.  The  United  States  was  the 
first  country  to  engage  in  the  business  of  cotton' production  in 
an  aggressive  manner,  and  has  constantly  occupied  a  dominant 
position  in  this  industry.  As  an  indication  of  this  dominant 
position  of  the  United  States  it  may  be  well  to  quote  the  figures 
of  the  cotton  production  for  1913.  In  that  year  the  United 
States  produced  14,157,000  bales,  British  India  3,857,000, 
Egypt  1,565,000,  Russia  657,000,  Brazil  277,000,  Mexico  200,- 
ooo,  and  Peru  110,000.  Texas  produces  about  31  per  cent,  of 
the  total  cotton  crop  of  the  United  States.  In  the  order  of 
importance  in  cotton  production,  Texas  is  followed  by  Georgia, 
Mississippi,  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Oklahoma,  South 
Carolina,  North  Carolina,  and  Tennessee.  Sea  Island  cotton 
is  grown  in  the  United  States  only  along  the  coast  of  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Florida.  Egyptian  cotton  is  grown  to 
some  extent  in  Arizona  and  California.  All  other  cotton  dis- 
tricts of  the  United  States  are  occupied  with  Upland  cotton. 

The  total  export  of  cottonseed  oil  from  cotton-producing 
countries  is  about  45,000,000  gallons,  of  which  the  United 
States  exports  35,000,000  gallons.  Cottonseed  oil  is  further 
discussed  under  oils. 

Rather  determined  efforts  are  being  made  in  various  parts 
of  the  tropical  and  semitropical  world  to  increase  the  acreage 
of  cotton.  Possibilities  for  a  considerable  extension  of  the  cot- 
ton industry  exist  in  India,  Egypt,  southern  Russia,  and  in  the 
European  colonies  in  Africa.  Whether  or  not  the  cotton  in- 
dustries in  these  countries  will  be  sufficiently  great  to  take  from 
the  United  States  the  leadership  in  this  industry  will  depend 


FIBER  PLANTS  169 

upon  various  economic  considerations  which  it  would  be  quite 
futile  to  discuss  at  the  present  time. 


JUTE 

Jute  is  perhaps  the  fiber  of  second  commercial  importance. 
The  plant  is  called  by  botanists  Corchorus  olitorius  or  C.  cap- 
sularis,  and  is  native  of  India,  China,  Formosa,  Federated 
Malay  States,'  etc.  Jute  is  an  annual  plant  with  long  slender 
stems  8  to  12  feet  high  and  rather  conspicuous  yellow  flowers. 
The  seed  is  sown  broadcast  or  in  nursery  beds  from  which  the 
young  seedlings  are  transplanted.  About  three  months  elapse 
between  seed  time  and  harvest.  In  harvesting  jute  the  stems 
are  cut  or  pulled  just  at  flowering  time.  The  stems  are  then 
retted  in  water  until  the  trash  readily  separates,  that  is  for  4 
to  30  days,  after  which  the  fiber  is  cleaned  by  hand.  The  acre 
yield  of  jute  fiber  ranges  from  1,200  to  3,000  pounds.  Jute 
fiber  is  used  for  a  great  variety  of  purposes,  but  chiefly  for 
gunny  bags,  cordage,  carpets,  cloth,  curtains,  etc.  In  Bengal, 
there  are  at  present  about  2,000,000  acres  cultivated  to  jute  and 
the  total  export  of  jute  fiber  from  India  is  more  than  15,000,- 
000,000  pounds  annually.  There  are  many  fibers  better  than 
the  jute,  but  the  great  prominence  of  jute  fiber  in  manufactur- 
ing industries  is  due  to  the  ease  of  cultivation  and  the  lack  of 
mechanical  or  technical  difficulties  in  manipulating  and  spin- 
ning the  fiber. 

SISAL 

Sisal  is  an  agave  and  native  of  Mexico  and  Central  America. 
True  sisal  is  known  as  Agave  sisalana,  while  henequen  is  known 
as  A.  elongata,  and  maguey  as  A.  cantata.  Sisal  is  ordinarily 
planted  about  8  by  8  feet  both  ways.  The  first  leaves  mature 
at  the  age  of  3  to  4  years  and  the  plant  sends  up  a  tall  flowering! 
shoot  or  pole  at  the  age  of  7  to  9  years.  Sisal  is  propagated 
either  by  suckers  or  pole  plants.  Suckers  are  young  plants 


170  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

which  develop  at  the  base  of  the  mother  plant  or  grow  up  from 
the  roots  of  the  old  plant  at  some  distance  away.  The  pole 
plants  are  the  peculiarly  modified  structures  which  develop 
from  the  flowers  on  the  branched  inflorescence  of  the  flower- 
ing pole.  About  3,000  pole  plants  develop  on  each  pole. 

During  the  whole  life  of  the  sisal  plant  about  180  leaves  are 
developed  and  these  leaves  yield  on  an  average  10  pounds  of 
fiber.  The  bearing  period  of  sisal  is  about  5  years  and  the  an- 
nual acre  production  is  approximately  600  pounds  of  dry  fiber. 

Sisal  is  extremely  drought  resistant  and  will  thrive  where 
most  cultivated  crops  would  utterly  fail.  It  would  withstand 
absolute  droughts  of  6  months'  or  more  duration.  In  fact,  the 
young  suckers  may  be  left  exposed  to  the  sun  on  the  surface  of 
the  soil  for  a  period  of  6  months  without  losing  their  vitality. 
On  account  of  the  drought-resistant  properties  of  sisal  and  its 
general  hardy  nature,  little  or  no  cultivation  is  absolutely  re- 
quired. In  some  of  the  larger  tropical  plantations  the  pole 
plants  or  suckers  are  merely  set  a  few  inches  into  the  soil  by 
means  of  a  bar  or  similar  instrument  and  without  any  previous 
plowing  or  preparation  of  the  soil.  In  this  position  plants  are 
allowed  to  grow  and  produce  their  crops  of  leaves  without  fur- 
ther attention.  It  has  been  found,  however,  that  sisal  will 
come  into  bearing  at  least  one  year  sooner  if  the  ground  is 
thoroughly  plowed  before  planting.  In  Hawaii,  it  has  been 
found  that  sisal  will  grow  in  highly  manganiferous  soil  where 
pineapples  and  most  other  crops  would  fail  utterly.  Sisal 
thrives  fairly  well  in  a  great  variety  of  soils.,  Near  Honolulu 
there  is  a  small  plantation  in  coral  limestone  and  another  in 
manganiferous  soil.  The  sisal  appears  to  thrive  equally  well 
in  .both  these  soils. 

Various  machines  have  been  used  in  removing  the  sisal  fiber 
from  the  leaves.  The  one  which  has  given  best  satisfaction  is 
called  a  raspador.  In  this  decorticating  machine  the  leaves  are 
grasped  by  one  end,  while  the  pulp  from  the  remainder  of  the 
leaf  is  crushed  and  carried  away  by  a  revolving  wheel,  after 


SISAL  PLANTS   IN   THE  BAHAMAS 


Jfi 


KAPOK   TREE   WITH    PODS   IN    NASSAU 


FIBER  PLANTS  171 

which  the  process  is  reversed  to  permit  the  removal  of  the  pulp 
from  the  portion  of  the  leaf  first  clamped  by  the  machine. 
After  decortication  the  fiber  is  at  once  dipped  in  water  and 
spread  out  to  dry.  In  periods  of  extreme  drought  the  leaves 
may  become  so  dry  that  the  pulp  is  not  readily  removed  from 
the  fiber.  In  such  cases  decortication  is  assisted  by  a  small 
stream  of  water  allowed  to  flow  upon  the  leaves  while  passing 
through  the  machine. 

The  fiber  when  dry  is  pressed  into  bales  usually  of  600 
pounds'  weight.  Well-cleaned  sisal  fiber  in  the  bale  is  an  ex- 
tremely attractive  product.  The  waste  pulp  obtained  in  decor- 
ticating sisal  leaves  has  been  fed  to  cows  in  a  few  localities, 
but  is  extremely  acid  and  unpalatable  material.  The  pulp  is 
useless  as  a  source  of  alcohol  for  the  reason  that  the  percentage 
of  fermentable  matter  in  it  is  too  low.  The  acid  in  sisal  is 
lactic  acid  and  the  percentage  increases  from  the  base  to  the 
tip  of  the  leaves.  This  acid  is  so  corrosive  that  the  parts  of 
the  decorticating  machine  which  come  in  direct  contact  with 
the  juice  are  made  of  gun  metal  to  resist  corrosion.  The  acid 
juice  is  also  injurious  to  the  skin  and  the  workers  are  provided 
with  rubber  gloves. 

The  wholesale  price  for  sisal  in  recent  years  has  ranged  from 
4  to  8  cents,  while  the  cost  of  production  is  about  3  cents. 
Since  an  acre  yield  is  not  above  600  pounds  per  year  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  acre  return  from  sisal  is  very  low  and  that 
the  margin  of  profit  is  extremely  narrow.  For  this  reason 
sisal  is  a  profitable  crop  only  when  grown  in  large  areas. 

As  compared  with  sisal,  henequen  lives  longer  but  brings 
a  lower  price  on  the  market.  The  leaves  have  spines  along 
the  lateral  edges,  while  sisal  leaves  do  not,  and  these  spines 
furnish  some  difficulty  in  handling  and  decortication.  Hene- 
quen, on  the  other  hand,  gives  a  larger  yield,  sometimes  as 
much  as  1,200  pounds  of  fiber  per  acre  per  year. 

Mexico  produces  120,000  tons  of  henequen  annually. 
True  sisal  is  produced  chiefly  in  the  Bahamas,  East  Africa, 


112  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

Hawaii,  and  Java.  The  leaves  of  the  maguey  are  less  rigid 
than  henequen,  but  have  lateral  spines  like  the  latter.  Maguey 
is  produced  chiefly  in  the  Philippines,  Java,  and  British  India. 
The  Philippines  export  about  6,000  tons  of  maguey  fiber.  At- 
tempts have  sometimes  been  made  to  secure  maguey  and  even 
sisal  fiber  by  retting,  but  the  fiber  is  always  discolored  and 
greatly  injured  by  this  process.  All  sisal  fiber  is  therefore  re- 
moved by  a  decorticating  machine.  Several  other  species  of 
Agave  are  sometimes  used  locally  for  fiber,  but  hardly  on  a 
commercial  scale,  for  example,  A.  americana  and  A.  decipiens. 
The  former  produces  a  fiber  known  as  pita  or  aloes  fiber.  Istle 
or  Tampico  fiber  is  derived  from  A.  heteracantha  and  A.  lo- 
phanta.  These  plants  have  thick,  rigid,  spiny  leaves  and  pro- 
duce a  coarse  fiber  which  is  used  for  cordage  and  bagging. 

Among  the  fiber  plants  related  to  sisal  it  may  be  well  to  men- 
tion cajun  (Furcr&a  cubensis)  and  Mauritius  hemp  (F.  gigan- 
tea).  Mauritius  hemp  is  indigenous  to  tropical  America.  The 
leaves  are  5  to  8  feet  long  and  spiny,  but  not  so  rigid  as  sisal 
leaves.  The  leaves  contain  about  2^/2  per  cent,  of  fiber,  which 
is  greatly  injured  by  retting,  but  is  extracted  without  harm  by 
scotching  machines.  The  yield  of  fiber  is  about  I  ton  per  acre. 
Cajun,  known  also  as  silk  grass,  gives  a  fiber  of  superior  qual- 
ity, the  leaves  containing  about  2  per  cent,  of  fiber  by  weight. 
The  cultivation  of  Mauritius  hemp  and  cajun  is  waning. 
Zapupe  (Agave  zapupe  and  other  species)  recently  came  into 
some  prominence  in  Mexico.  This  plant  produces  leaves  ready 
for  harvesting  at  the  age  of  2  years.  The  crop  persists  longer 
than  sisal,  but  the  commercial  status  of  the  fiber  is  yet  to  be 
determined. 

The  sisal  leaves  contain  about  3.5  per  cent,  of  fiber  by  weight 
and  the  commercial  fiber  varies  in  length  from  3  to  5  feet.  This 
fiber  is  second  only  to  Manila  hemp  in  strength.  It  is  used 
chiefly  for  cordage.  The  binder  twine  industry  requires  a 
large  amount  of  sisal,  and  sisal  fiber  is  extensively  used  in  mak- 
ing so-called  Manila  rope.  In  the  cordage  industry  as  in  vari- 


FIBER  PLANTS 

cms  other  manufacturing  processes  a  great  amount  of  substi- 
tution and  mixing  is  practiced.  Since  sisal  can  usually  be 
purchased  at  a  considerably  lower  price  than  that  of  Manila 
hemp  the  sisal  fiber  is  used  in  cordage  as  a  substitute  for  Man- 
ila hemp. 

As  already  indicated,  the  commercial  production  of  sisal  is 
carried  on  chiefly  in  Mexico,  the  Bahamas,  and  East  Africa. 
The  United  States  occupies  a  very  unimportant  position  in  the 
production  of  this  material.  In  Hawaii  there  are  about  1,600 
acres  devoted  to  sisal  and  an  annual  product  of  400  tons  of 
fiber.  The  United  States  imports  annually,  however,  215,000 
tons  of  sisal,  98  per  cent,  of  which  is  obtained  in  Mexico.  The 
quality  of  the  Hawaiian  product  is  excellent.  The  Hawaiian 
sisal  is  true  sisal  and  is  superior  in  value  to  the  henequen  fiber 
imported  under  the  name  of  sisal  from  Mexico.  In  Hawaii 
also  an  improvement  has  been  introduced  in  the  way  of  modify- 
ing the  decorticating  machines  for  sisal.  One  of  these  ma- 
chines will  separate  1,000  pounds  of  sisal  per  day.  Sisal  also 
thrives  well  on  the  Florida  Keys,  but  has  never  been  produced 
there  in  commercial  quantities. 


MANILA  HEMP 

Manila  hemp,  or  abaca,  as  it  is  called  in  the  Philippines,  is 
a  tall  species  of  banana  with  small  useless  fruit  full  of  black 
seed  and  with  a  fiber  of  unusual  excellence  in  the  trunk.  The 
botanical  name  of  abaca  is  Musa  textilis.  The  leaves  of  this 
plant  are  more  decidedly  tufted  at  the  apex  of  the  trunk  than 
in  the  case  of  edible  bananas.  Abaca  is  indigenous  to  the 
Philippines. 

The  value  of  the  fiber  was  demonstrated  in  1656  by  a  Fran- 
ciscan monk  who  devised  a  simple  instrument  which  is  still 
used  by  the  natives  for  decortication.  Notwithstanding  numer- 
ous attempts  in  various  tropical  countries,  the  Philippines  still 
enjoy  a  monopoly  in  the  production  of  Manila  hemp.  The  rea- 


174  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

son  for  the  failure  of  Manila  hemp  in  various  other  tropical 
countries  to  which  it  has  been  introduced  is  not  apparent.  A 
number  of  suckers  supposed  to  be  those  of  Manila  hemp  were 
imported  by  the  Hawaii  Experiment  Station,  but  when  these 
plants  came  to  maturity  they  proved  to  be  only  a  wild  species 
of  banana  with  small  fruits  full  of  seed  and  with  a  poor  fiber 
weaker  even  than  the  fiber  of  the  Chinese  banana. 

Manila  hemp  is  propagated  chiefly  by  suckers  in  the  same 
manner  as  bananas  and  rarely  by  seed.  The  planting  distance 
varies  from  6  to  10  feet  apart  both  ways.  The  trunk  is  cut 
down  at  the  age  of  3  or  4  years  just  as  the  plant  is  about  to 
flower.  It  has  been  found  that  the  fiber  is  practically  ruined 
by  allowing  the  plant  to  fruit.  Such  cultivation  and  weeding 
as  the  crop  may  receive  during  its  growth  are  largely  done  by 
hand.  For  the  purpose  of  decortication  the  trunk  is  cut  into 
longitudinal  strips  and  the  strips  are  then  pulled  across  the  edge 
of  a  knife  either  notched  like  a  saw  or  with  smooth  edge.  The 
strip  of  the  trunk  is  pressed  against  the  knife  edge  by  means  of 
a  lever  operated  by  a  second  workman.  A  pair  of  laborers 
working  in  this  manner  will  take  out  about  30  to  35  pounds  of 
fiber  per  day.  When  first  removed  the  fiber  contains  about  55 
per  cent,  of  moisture.  After  being  thoroughly  dried  the  fiber 
is  packed  in  bales  of  about  125  pounds. 

The  reported  yields  of  Manila  hemp  fiber  range  from  500  to 
6,000  pounds  per  acre.  The  average  yield  is  perhaps  750 
pounds.  The  experience  in  the  Philippines  has  shown  that  a 
plantation  can  be  operated  profitably  for  about  15  years  before 
replanting  becomes  necessary.  Manila  hemp  possesses  a  long 
fiber,  often  6  feet  in  length.  The  lighter  the  color  and  the 
greater  the  luster  of  the  fiber  the  higher  the  value.  Abaca 
belongs  with  hard  fibers  and  is  used  chiefly  for  cordage,  par- 
ticularly marine  cables.  It  is  extremely  light  and  a  given 
weight  produces  a  greater  length  of  cable  than  can  be  obtained 
from  the  same  weight  of  most  other  fibers.  Abaca  also  strongly 
resists  the  action  of  water,  especially  salt  water.  The  fiber 


FIBER  PLANTS  175 

from  the  outer  portion  of  the  trunk  is  shortest,  darkest  in  color, 
and  of  least  value.  It  is  used  mostly  in  cheap  bagging.  Fibers 
from  the  intermediate  portion  of  the  stem  are  exported  for 
cordage,  while  the  inner  part  of  the  stem  furnishes  a  fiber  used 
in  fine  fabrics  and  gauzes.  For  many  years  the  quality  of  the 
fiber  exported  from  Manila  was  allowed  to  deteriorate  as  a 
result  of  improper  sorting,  cutting  the  trunks  at  the  wrong 
stage  of  growth,  the  use  of  a  saw  tooth  edge  in  place  of  a 
smooth  knife,  and  packing  the  fiber  before  it  was  dry.  Many 
complaints  were  received  from  manufacturers  and  attention 
was  again  directed  to  proper  methods  in  preparing  this  valuable 
product.  * 

About  10  per  cent,  of  the  total  quantity  of  Manila  hemp  ex- 
ported is  best  grade,  18  per  cent,  good  current,  40  per  cent, 
current,  and  32  per  cent.  low.  The  total  export  of  Manila 
hemp  is  about  175,000  tons.  This  appears  to  satisfy  the  world's 
demand.  At  any  rate  the  market  demand  is  apparently  not 
larger  than  the  supply  and  varies  from  year  to  year  with  the 
available  supply  of  other  fibers. 

BANANA  FIBER 

Attempts  have  been  made  in  many  localities  throughout  the 
Tropics  to  extract  a  serviceable  fiber  from  various  species  of 
edible  and  wild  bananas.  The  fiber  of  Musa  basjoo  is  of  fair 
strength,  good  length  and  luster,  and  is  used  in  Japan  to  some 
extent  in  the  manufacture  of  bashofu  cloth  and  as  a  substitute 
for  wall  paper.  Many  experiments  have  also  been  carried  on 
with  the  fiber  of  M.  sapientum  and  M.  cavendishii  and  other 
species  of  bananas.  Banana  trunks  yield  about  2  per  cent,  of 
fiber  which  is  light  colored,  but  weak  and  ununiform.  The  na- 
tives of  the  West  Indies  have  used  banana  fiber  for  making 
cheap  bags  and  even  garments.  Companies  have  been  organ- 
ized with  announcements  of  good  prospects  from  the  extrac- 
tion of  banana  fiber,  but  this  fiber  is  of  doubtful  commercial 


176  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

value  and  has  never  been  produced  in  commercial  quantities. 
If  it  could  be  obtained  economically  in  large  quantities  it  might 
be  used  as  a  cheap  substitute  for  abaca  or  sisal.  The  experi- 
ment in  extracting  the  fiber  of  the  Chinese  banana  in  Hawaii 
indicated  that  this  banana  yielded  about  2  per  cent,  of  a  fiber 
which  gave  promise  of  being  a  good  material  for  use  in  paper 
manufacture.  It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  it  could  be 
economically  extracted  for  such  purposes. 


RAMIE 

Ramie  is  a  well  known  and  much  desired  fiber  of  great  merit, 
but  suffers  from  the  disadvantages  occasioned  by  difficulties  in 
extracting  and  cleaning  the  fiber.  The  botanical  name  of  ramie 
is  Boehmeria  nwea.  It  is  produced  chiefly  in  China,  Formosa, 
Korea,  Assam,  Bengal,  Mexico,  and  Caucasus.  The  United 
States  imports  about  4,000  tons  of  ramie  fiber  annually.  The 
ramie  plant  looks  like  a  nettle  and  attains  a  height  of  6  to  12 
feet.  The  fiber  is  long,  exceedingly  strong,  and  is  least  injured 
by  water  of  all  known  fibers  except  perhaps  olona. 

Ramie  is  best  propagated  by  root  division.  The  plant  yields 
two  crops  annually  and  1,000  pounds  is  considered  a  good 
annual  yield  of  fiber.  The  green  stalks  yield  about  10  per  cent, 
by  weight  of  degummed  fiber.  Ramie  is  extracted  by  hand 
stripping,  boiling  in  water,  and  special  machinery  devised  for 
the  purpose.  The  gums  are  then  removed  from  the  fiber  by 
treatment  with  caustic  alkalis  or  dilute  acids.  Ramie  fiber  is 
used  in  innumerable  kinds  of  cloth,  fabrics,  cordage,  thread, 
paper,  etc.  The  wholesale  price  of  the  fiber  is  12  cents  or  more 
per  pound.  The  crop  offers  little  difficulty  from  an  agricultural 
standpoint,  but  the  great  difficulties  encountered  in  decortica- 
tion  limit  the  large  extension  of  the  industry.  Ramie  has  been 
grown  experimentally  in  the  Southern  States  and  California. 
It  thrives  well  in  those  States,  but  has  not  given  promise  of 
becoming  a  commercial  industry  there. 


FIBER  PLANTS  177 

KAPOK 

Kapok  is  the  most  important  source  of  silk-cotton,  or  floss. 
The  botanical  name  of  the  tree  is  Eriodendron  anfractuosum. 
The  tree  is  indigenous  to  the  West  Indies,  Asia,  and  Africa. 
It  attains  a  height  of  30  to  60  feet,  possesses  a  smooth  bark, 
and  horizontal  whorled  branches.  In  some  countries,  as  for 
example  in  Cuba,  the  kapok  tree  assumes  irregular  and  weird 
habits  of  growth.  For  the  most  part,  however, 'it  is  a  graceful 
and  rather  handsome  tree.  The  leaves  fall  during  the  dry 
season. 

The  tree  begins  bearing  at  about  3  years  of  age.  It  is  com- 
monly estimated  that  100  pods  will  produce  i  pound  of  floss 
and  that  about  10  pounds  of  floss  may  be  obtained  annually 
from  each  mature  tree.  The  floss  is  used  in  pillows,  mattresses, 
and  recently  in  life  belts.  It  has  been  found  of  unusual  merit 
in  the  construction  of  life  preservers  by  reason  of  its  im- 
permeability to  water.  The  tree  is  propagated  from  cuttings  or 
from  seed  and  is  planted  about  20  feet  apart  both  ways.  Kapok 
plantations  are  often  interplanted  with  coffee  for  shade.  The 
pods  are  picked  before  opening  and  just  after  they  turn  brown. 
They  are  then  dried  in  the  sun  and  the  seed  is  beaten  out  by 
bamboo  brush  or  other  hand  methods.  A  satisfactory  ginning 
machine  for  kapok  is  a  desideratum.  A  few  machines  which 
are  said  to  have  given  good  results  are  now  in  use  in  the 
Philippines. 

Floss  is  replacing  cork  for  buoyant  cushions  and  is  preferred 
to  all  other  fibers  in  upholstery  on**account  of  its  great  elas- 
ticity. The  fiber  is  short,  silky,  and  possessed  of  little  drag  or 
the  quality  of  adhering  together,  which  is  so  necessary  for 
spinning  purposes.  The  elasticity  of  the  fiber,  however,  is  very 
great  and  for  this  reason  mattresses  and  pillows  made  of  kapok 
fiber  do  not  readily  become  matted. 

Java  produces  10,000  tons  of  floss  annually,  Ceylon  300 
tons,  and  the  Philippines  100  tons.  The  demand  for  kapok  is 


178  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

increasing.  In  India,  Bombax  maiibaricum,  a  plant  closely 
related  to  kapok,  and  like  kapok  pnducing  large  pods  with 
black  seed  covered  with  a  silky  lint,  is  nsed  as  a  substitute  for 
kapok.  The  bombax  fiber,  however,  is  a  reddish-brown,  while 
the  kapok  is  ivory  white. 

Kapok  is  often  called  silk-cotton,  but  this  is  a  rather  mis- 
leading term.  The  kapok  pods  are  3  to  5  inches  long,  spindle- 
shaped,  and  2  inches  in  diameter  at  the  center.  Unlike  true 
cotton  the  valves  of  the  pod  do  not  open  on  the  tree  to 
allow  the  picking  of  the  lint,  but  the  pods  must  be  picked 
whole  before  the  valves,  open,  otherwise  the  lint  would  be 
blown  away  and  lost.  The  pod  is  tightly  packed  with  a  soft 
and  silky  white  lint  very  loosely  attached  to  the  small  black 
seed. 


MILKWEEDS 

Several  species  of  Asclepiadacese,  as  well  as  Beaumontia, 
Strophanthus,  and  certain  other  Apocynaceae  bear  a  soft  fiber 
on  the  seed  which  has  been  used  under  the  general  term  vege- 
table silk.  Calotropis  gigantea,  native  of  China,  India,  and 
Africa,  possesses  a  bast  fiber  which  splits  into  fine  silky  threads 
which  have  been  used  for  fabrics  and  also  for  cordage.  Thus 
far  this  fiber  has  been  removed  entirely  by  hand.  The  yield 
obtained  from  wild  areas  of  the  tree  is  about  500  pounds  per 
acre.  The  fiber  has  a  high  degree  of  resistance  to  moisture. 
The  tree  also  yields  a  latex  from  which  a  low  grade  of  rubber 
has  been  produced. 

Asdepias  curassavica,  native  of  Central  America  and  South 
America  and  now  generally  distributed  throughout  the  Tropics, 
has  sometimes  been  used  locally  as  a  source  of  fiber.  Cryptos- 
tegia  grandiflora  yields  a  fine,  strong  fiber  from  bast  which  is 
sometimes  used  for  cordage  and  yarn.  This  plant  is  a  hand- 
some woody  climber  which  attains  a  great  length,  climbing 
from  the  branches  and  crowns  of  trees  and  bears  large,  pretty, 


FIBER  PLANTS  179 

rose-colored  or  pinkish  flowers.    The  plant  also  yields  a  high- 
grade  rubber. 

NEW  ZEALAND  FLAX 

New  Zealand  flax  (Phormium  tenax}  has  been  widely  dis- 
tributed from  its  home  in  New  Zealand  throughout  the  Tropics 
and  even  into  temperate  climates.  The  plant  is  propagated  by 
root  division  or  by  seed  at  distances  of  3  by  3  .feet  to  6  by  6 
feet.  The  leaves  of  the  New  Zealand  flax  are  sword-like,  5  to 
6  feet  in  length  and  contain  15  to  20  per  cent,  fiber.  At  about 
3  years  of  age  the  plant  sends  up  a  flower  stalk  after  which, 
as  in  the  case  of  sisal  and  henequen,  the  remaining  leaves  are 
no  longer  useful  for  fiber  purposes.  New  Zealand  flax  yields 
about  1,200  pounds  of  fine  fiber  and  800  pounds  of  tow  per 
acre.  The  fiber  is  white  and  of  silky  luster  and  finer  than  hemp 
or  linen.  The  native  Maoris  remove  the  fiber  by  hand,  but 
decorticating  machinery  is  used  on  large  plantations  to  cheapen 
the  product.  New  Zealand  flax  fiber  is  used  for  cordage,  twine, 
and  matting.  The  export  from  New  Zealand  amounts  to  25,000 
tons  annually.  The  United  States  imports  6,000  tons  of  New 
Zealand  flax  per  year.  The  plant  thrives  well  in  California  as 
far  north  as  San  Francisco  and  the  leaves  are  used  to  some  ex- 
tent by  farmers  as  tying  material,  but  the  plant  has  never  as- 
sumed commercial  importance  in  the  United  States. 


BOWSTRING  HEMP 

Bowstring  hemp  belongs  to  the  lily  family,  of  which  several 
species  of  the  genus  Sansevieria  have  come  to  be  known  by 
this  name.  The  different  species  of  bowstring  hemp  are  com- 
monly found  in  Guinea,  Ceylon,  Bengal,  Java,  Southern  China, 
and  generally  throughout  the  Tropics.  There  are  about  30  well 
known  species  of  bowstring  hemp.  They  are  herbaceous,  stem- 
less  plants  with  sword-like  root  leaves,  blotched  with  gray,  2 
to  7  feet  long  or  more.  The  leaves  yield  a  fine  white  strong 


180  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

fiber  used  in  mats,  hammocks,  bowstrings,  twine,  and  for  vari- 
ous other  purposes.  The  plants  are  easily  propagated  by  seed, 
root  division,  or  suckers.  They  require  little  care  or  cultiva- 
tion, spread  readily  by  root  suckers,  and  grow  wild  over  large 
areas.  Plantings  rarely  have  to  be  renewed.  Bowstring  hemp 
yields  its  first  crop  at  about  3  years  of  age.  As  a  rule,  50 
pounds  of  fiber  may  be  expected  per  ton  of  leaves.  The  fiber 
may  be  removed  by  hand  machines,  or  by  a  sisal  decorticator. 
For  this  purpose  the  sisal  machine  merely  requires  special  ad- 
justment. In  Porto  Rico  the  bowstring  hemp  is  quite  an  im- 
portant plant  for  local  uses.  A  species  of  bowstring  hemp  (S. 
longfflora),  quite  widely  distributed  in  tropical  America,  is 
grown  in  Florida,  especially  on  the  Keys.  This  species  pro- 
duces fiber  ranging  from  2l/2  to  7  feet  in  length  and  yields 
about  40  pounds  of  fiber  to  a  ton  of  leaves.  It  was  introduced 
into  Florida  about  1890,  but  has  never  become  a  commercial 
crop. 

HIBISCUS  FIBERS 

Nearly  all  species  of  Hibiscus,  both  ornamental  and  commer- 
cial, as  well  as  most  species  of  the  whole  mallow  family,  pro- 
duce a  strong  and  serviceable  bast  fiber  in  the  bark.  Only  a 
few  species  of  Hibiscus,  however,  have  been  used  for  the  com- 
mercial production  of  fiber.  The  musk  mallow  (H.  abilmos- 
chus)  has  been  the  subject  of  experiment  in  India  with  refer- 
ence to  the  value  of  its  fiber.  In  these  experiments  800  pounds 
of  fiber  per  acre  were  obtained.  The  fiber  was  found  to  have 
no  advantage  over  jute.  The  Deccan  hemp  (H.  cannabinus), 
a  native  of  the  East  Indies,  is  perhaps  the  most  valuable  mem- 
ber of  the  genus  as  a  fiber  plant.  The  length  of  the  fiber  of 
Deccan  hemp  is  5  to  10  feet.  The  fiber  is  inferior  to  true  hemp 
and  jute,  but  is  used  in  India  for  various  agricultural  purposes. 
The  stems  of  the  plant  are  cut,  bundled,  and  retted  in  water  for 
about  a  week.  The  cultivation  of  the  Deccan  hemp  is  much  like 
that  of  true  hemp.  The  time  from  seed  to  harvest  is  about  3 


FIBER  PLANTS  181 

months    and    the   yield    of   fiber   averages    2  tons    per   acre. 

The  Cuba  bast  (H.  elatus)  is  a  tree  native  to  the  West  Indies 
and  attaining  a  height  of  50  feet.  In  order  to  obtain  fiber  the 
tree  is  cut  and  the  bark  is  then  peeled  off.  From  the  bark  a 
coarse  bast  fiber  is  obtained  suitable  for  cordage  and  cheap 
bags.  This  fiber  is  also  called  Mountain  Mahoe.  Occasional 
mention  in  literature  on  fiber  plants  of  H.  arboreus  perhaps  re- 
fers to  this  species.  Okra  (H.  esculentus)  produces  a  long 
white  smooth  fiber  which  is  not  very  strong.  In  India  this  fiber 
is  used  for  rope,  sacking,  and  paper.  The  yield  is  usually  not 
greater  than  180  pounds  per  acre.  A  company  was  once  organ- 
ized in  Texas  to  extract  okra  fiber,  but  the  attempt  was  later 
abandoned  as  impractical. 

Roselle  (H.  sabdariffa),  a  native  of  the  West  Indies,  was 
long  cultivated  in  India  for  fiber  without  making  use  of  the 
fruit  of  this  plant.  The  fiber  is  obtained  by  retting  the  stems 
in  water  for  15  to  20  days.  The  yield  is  about  600  pounds  per 
acre  of  dry  fiber.  Roselle  fiber  is  quite  extensively  used  for 
cordage  and  paper.  Fiber  is  light  brown  in  color  and  some- 
what stronger  than  jute.  Majagua  (H.  tiliaceus)  occurs  widely 
in  Central  America,  South  America,  India,  and  the  Pacific 
Islands.  Among  the  Polynesians  this  straggling  bush  is  called 
hau.  The  fiber  obtained  from  the  bast  of  the  bark  is  used  for 
rope  in  Trinidad  and  Peru.  It  is  weaker  than  jute  and,  as  ordi- 
narily obtained,  ranges  in  length  from  4  to  6  feet. 

Various  other  species  of  Hibiscus,  as  well  as  the  related 
tree  Thespesia  populnea,  called  milo  by  the  Polynesians,  have 
been  used  as  sources  of  fiber.  Tronadora  (Abutilon  incanum), 
a  native  of  Mexico,  is  a  low  shrub  which  attains  a  height  of  8 
feet.  The  stems  are  retted  in  water  3  to  4  days  and  stripped 
by  hand.  From  the  bast  a  very  durable  fiber  is  obtained,  useful 
in  manufacturing  hammocks,  ropes,  and  nets.  A.  indicum  oc- 
curs quite  commonly  in  India,  Burma,  Mauritius,  and  South 
Africa.  The  bast,  which  is  obtained  in  the  same  manner  as 
were  the  last  named  species,  is  used  for  cordage.  A.  periploci- 


182  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

folium,  a  species  native  to  tropical  America,  attains  a  height  of 
12  feet.  Under  cultivation  this  species  yields  nearly  a  ton  of 
yellowish  bast  per  acre.  The  bark  is  retted  for  5  to  8  days  and 
the  fiber  thus  obtained  is  used  for  ropes. 


PIASSAVA  FIBER 

From  a  number  of  palms  a  fiber  known  as  piassava  fiber 
is  obtained  from  the  margins  of  the  leaves  or  leaf  petioles. 
Leopoldinia  piassaba  of  the  Orinoco  and  Amazon  regions  pro- 
duces on  the  margins  of  the  leaf  petioles  long  strips  which 
split  into  fibers  4  to  6  feet  long.  This  fiber  is  used  for  brooms 
and  brushes  and  by  the  natives  for  ropes,  baskets,  hats,  and 
other  utensils.  Attalia  funifera  of  Brazil,  known  as  the  Bahia 
piassava,  yields  stiff,  wiry,  brown  fiber  from  the  fringe  of  the 
leaf  petioles.  This  fiber  is  used  for  brushes  and  coarse  cables. 
The  trees  begin  to  bear  at  6  to  9  years  of  age.  In  practice  it  is 
found  that  one  man  can  harvest  about  100  pounds  per  day.  The 
annual  export  from  Brazil  is  approximately  7,000  tons. 

The  Palmyra  palm  (Bor&ssus  flabellifer)  of  India,  Africa, 
and  other  tropical  countries  produces  a  fiber  from  the  leaf 
sheaths  resembling  piassava.  This  fiber  is  used  for  machine 
brushes,  ropes,  twine,  and  fish  traps.  The  export  of  Palmyra 
palm  from  Ceylon  and  Madras  is  gradually  increasing.  The 
wine  palm  (Caryota  urens),  common  in  India,  Pacific  Islands, 
and  various  other  parts  of  the  Tropics,  yields  a  fiber  from  the 
leaf  petiole  which  is  quite  widely  used  for  brushes. 

SUNN  HEMP 

The  sunn  hemp  (Crotalaria  juncea)  is  a  leguminous  plant 
native  of  Asia,  and  widely  cultivated  in  India,  Ceylon,  Java, 
and  Borneo  for  its  fiber.  The  fiber  is  used  for  coarse  canvas, 
cordage,  and  fish  nets.  Sunn  hemp  seed  are  sown  broadcast 
and  the  yield  of  fiber  per  acre  is  650  pounds.  The  stems  are 


FIBER  PLANTS  183 

cut,  dried,  and  then  retted  for  4  or  5  days  in  water.  Sunn 
hemp  is  also  a  valuable  cover  crop  and  is  extensively  grown  as 
a  green  manure  plant.  The  quantity  of  foliage  and  vegetable 
material  produced  per  acre,  however,  is  less  than  with  several 
other  species  of  Crotalaria.  About  500,000  acres  of  sunn  hemp 
are  grown  from  fiber  in  Madras,  where  the  fiber  is  produced 
as  a  substitute  for  jute.  The  fiber  is  really  better  than  jute 
and  of  a  lighter  color. 


PINEAPPLE  FIBER 

Pineapple  fiber  is  produced  chiefly  in  the  Philippine  Islands, 
Formosa,  and  Java.  In  the  Philippines  this  fiber  is  used  in 
the  manufacture  of  the  well  known  pina  cloth,  while  the  fiber 
produced  in  Formosa  is  shipped  to  China,  where  it  is  made  into 
grass  cloth  or  grass  linen.  For  fiber,  pineapple  plants  are  spaced 
4  by  4  feet.  The  yield  is  about  500  pounds  of  fiber  per  acre. 
Ordinarily  the  leaves  contain  3  or  4  per  cent,  by  weight  of 
fiber.  In  the  Philippines  and  Formosa  the  fiber  is  removed 
from  the  leaves  by  hand.  In  order  to  obtain  the  best  quality  of 
fiber  it  is  necessary  to  harvest  leaves  at  their  maximum  stage 
of  growth  and  before  they  begin  to  wither  at  the  tip.  The 
Hawaii  Experiment  Station  made  a  study  of  the  possibility  of 
utilizing  pineapple  leaves  from  commercial  pineapple  planta- 
tions in  the  production  of  fiber.  In  Hawaii,  three  crops  of 
pineapples  are  taken  before  the  fields  are  replanted.  Most  of 
the  leaves  of  the  old  plants  have  therefore  begun  to  wither  at 
the  tips  before  the  three  crops  of  fruit  are  harvested.  A  ton  of 
these  leaves  was  collected  and  put  through  an  ordinary  sisal 
decorticator.  An  excellent  quality  of  fiber  was  obtained  with- 
out difficulty.  It  was  found  that  the  leaves  yielded  about  3  per 
cent,  by  weight  of  commercial  fiber.  Considerable  loss  of  fiber 
occurred  for  the  reason  that  the  sisal  decorticating  machine 
was  not  quite  properly  adjusted  for  pineapple  leaves.  Fiber 
obtained  from  old  pineapple  leaves  under  such  circumstances 


184  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

could  not  be  used  for  pifia  cloth,  but  it  has  good  strength  and 
seemed  to  be  a  fair  substitute  for  sisal. 

Caraguata  (Bromelia  argentina),  a  native  of  Paraguay  and 
Argentina,  yields  a  soft,  silky  fiber  from  the  leaves  4  to  6  feet 
long  and  much  resembling  pineapple  fiber.  It  is  much  used  by 
the  natives  for  making  cordage  and  sacks.  B.  pinguin  of  West 
Indies,  Central  America,  and  South  America,  also  called  wild 
pineapple,  yields  a  leaf  fiber  which  is,  however,  not  of  much 
commercial  value.  B.  sylvestris,  native  of  the  West  Indies  and 
Central  America,  has  been  called  silk  grass  and  "Bromelia 
istle."  The  fiber  from  the  leaves  of  this  plant  is  strong  and 
silky  and  is  much  used  by  the  natives  for  cordage  and  various 
other  purposes. 

OLONA 

Olona  (Touchardia  latifolia)  is  a  native  Hawaiian  shrub  at- 
taining a  height  of  3  to  10  feet.  The  shrub  belongs  to  the  net- 
tle family,  the  flowers  somewhat  resembling  those  of  the 
nettle.  The  olona  occurs  generally  in  deep  ravines  on  all  the 
Hawaiian  islands,  but  is  not  particularly  common  anywhere. 
The  fiber  is  highly  prized  by  the  natives  for  use  in  making 
fish  nets  and  fish  lines.  It  is  extremely  strong,  flexible,  and 
of  great  durability.  Fish  lines  known  to  be  100  years  old  are 
still  in  prime  condition.  It  shows  a  most  unusual  resistance 
to  the  influence  of  either  fresh  or  salt  water.  The  fiber  is  taken 
from  wild  plants  by  hand  methods,  the  pulp  of  the  bark  being 
separated  from  the  fiber.  The  plant  has  never  been  cultivated 
and  the  fiber  is  therefore  not  of  commercial  importance. 

DEVIL'S  COTTON 

This  tree,  known  to  botanists  as  Abroma  augusta,  is  native 
of  India,  China,  Java,  and  the  Philippines.  It  is  a  small  tree 
cultivated  to  some  extent  in  India.  It  yields  a  strong  bast 
fiber  which  is  white  and  of  great  strength.  The  fiber  is  fine 


FIBER  PLANTS  185 

and  silky  and  is  extensively  used  for  cordage.  It  has  even 
been  recommended  as  a  substitute  for  silk.  The  fibers  are 
readily  separated  by  maceration  in  water  for  4  to  8  days.  The 
staple  of  Devil's  cotton  is  4  to  6  feet  long.  The  fiber  is  ob- 
tained from  the  outer  dry  fibrous  bark  of  the  tree,  and  it  has 
been  found  that  this  bark  develops  so  rapidly  that  it  may  be 
removed  2  or  3  times  a  year. 


RAFFIA 

Raffia  is  a  well  known  palm  50  to  70  feet  high,  known  to 
botanists  as  Raphia  ruflia,  and  is  native  of  Africa.  The  raf- 
fia palm  bears  pinnate  leaves  25  to  50  feet  long.  The  com- 
mercial fiber  comes  from  both  surfaces  of  the  leaves.  The 
epidermis  and  the  underlying  hard  tissue  of  the  leaf  is  easily 
stripped  from  the  leaves  in  bands  3  or  4  feet  long.  The  raffia 
is  used  in  Madagascar  for  hats,  mats,  and  plaited  goods.  In 
the  United  States  the  raffia  is  used  principally  by  gardeners 
and  nurserymen  as  a  binding  or  tying  material  in  grafting 
operations.  It  is  also  used  in  this  country  in  wall  coverings, 
fine  grades  of  matting,  and  for  basket  weaving.  The  palm 
reaches  maturity  of  its  leaves  at  the  age  of  15  years  and  con- 
tinues to  yield  crops  of  leaves  for  about  40  years,  after  which 
it  begins  to  fruit.  As  is  the  case  with  a  number  of  other 
palms  the  tree  is  of  little  commercial  value  after  fruiting  be- 
gins. The  export  of  raffia  from  Madagascar  is  about  5,000 
tons  annually.  R.  vinifera  is  a  West  African  palm,  which 
is  used  for  similar  purposes.  There  are  said  to  be  about 
5,000  square  miles  of  this  species  near  Lagos.  Ultimately  this 
area  will  doubtless  become  of  great  commercial  value. 


ESPARTO  GRASS 

This  is  a  tufted  grass  which  occurs  abundantly  in  Tripoli 
and  northeastern  Africa  generally.    It  is  also  cultivated  along 


186  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  northern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  particularly  in  Spain. 
The  grass  is  known  to  botanists  as  Stipa  tenacissima.  It  re- 
quires about  3  years  for  the  tussocks  of  this  grass  to  reach  a 
harvesting  stage  and  the  fibers  obtained  from  the  stems  of 
the  grass  felt  readily  and  yield  an  excellent  stock  for  paper 
making,  especially  suitable  for  mixing  with  rags,  straw,  or 
wood  pulp.  The  total  production  of  this  fiber  is  about  200,000 
tons  annually.  The  fiber  is  I  to  2  feet  long,  fine,  uniform,  and 
strong.  It  has  also  been  used  in  cordage,  sandals,  baskets, 
and  various  other  utensils.  Esparto  grass  has  been  grown  in 
the  Southern  States,  but  has  thus  far  given  no  commercial 
promise  in  these  States. 

PAPYRUS 

Several  species  of  sedge  furnish  valuable  paper  and  mat- 
making  material.  The  true  papyrus  of  ancient  times  (Cy perns 
papyrus)  was  formerly  cultivated  by  the  Egyptians  along  the 
Nile.  It  is  now  found  in  Abyssinia,  Palestine,  and  Sicily.  The 
stems  of  the  papyrus  sedge  are  used  in  Egypt  for  making  boats, 
mats,  and  baskets,  but  chiefly  in  the  production  of  a  writing 
paper  which  is  manufactured  from  the  inner  bark  of  the  stems. 
In  preparing  this  material  the  stems  are  slit  lengthwise,  after 
which  the  stems  are  moistened  and  pressed  together.  As  is 
generally  well  known,  rolls  of  papyrus  were  interred  with 
mummies. 

The  Chinese  mat  rush  (C.  tegetiformis)  also  sometimes 
called  seaside  grass,  is  a  tall  sedge  with  stems  reaching  a  height 
of  3  to  6  feet,  widely  used  in  the  manufacture  of  mats  and  hats. 
This  sedge  was  formerly  imported  into  the  United  States  in 
bales  for  use  in  the  manufacture  of  floor  mattings.  The  leaves 
require  splitting  lengthwise  into  halves,  and  while  many 
attempts  have  been  made  to  devise  machinery  which  would 
satisfactorily  accomplish  this  operation  little  success  has  been 
had.  The  leaves  are  therefore  split  by  hand.  This  work 
proved  to  be  too  expensive  for  American  manufacturers  and 


FIBER  PLANTS  187 

the  enterprise  was  abandoned.  A  large  percentage  of  the 
woven  vegetable  fiber  mats  used  in  the  United  States  are  made 
from  this  plant. 

In  experiments  at  the  Hawaii  Experiment  Station  it  was 
found  that  the  crop  required  6  to  7  months  from  planting  to 
harvest.  After  one  cutting  a  rattoon  crop  developed  within 
5  months.  The  second  crop,  however,  was  shorter  than  the 
first  crop.  The  yield  in  these  experiments  was  about  5  tons 
per  acre  and  the  stems  varied  in  length  from  36  to  60  inches. 
Experiments  with  the  Chinese  mat  rush  in  the  Southern  States 
showed  that  this  crop  would  thrive  well  in  the  brackish  marshes 
along  the  coast  but,  as  already  explained,  the  expense  of 
manipulating  the  material  by  hand  has  discouraged  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  matting  industry  in  this  country.  C.  tegetum, 
a  closely  related  species,  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of  floor 
matting  in  Calcutta  and  C.  unitans  furnishes  material  for  use 
in  coarse,  cheap  matting  in  Japan. 

Bingo-i  mat  rush  (Juncus  effusus)  is  a  rush  extensively 
grown  in  Japan.  It  attains  a  height  of  4  or  5  feet  and,  like 
the  Chinese  matting  sedge,  thrives  in  water  along  the  coast, 
enduring  even  the  brackish  water.  The  rush  is  shorter  than 
the  Chinese  mat  plant ;  the  stems  are  cut  by  hand  when  mature, 
and  quickly  dried.  The  bingo-i  mat  rush  is  not  split  for  manu- 
facturing purposes.  In  Japan  it  is  used  for  making  the  most 
expensive  floor  mats  of  that  country.  The  plant  has  been 
found  to  thrive  in  Hawaii  and  various  other  countries  into 
which  it  has  been  introduced  but  no  commercial  industry  in 
connection  with  it  has  been  developed  outside  of  Japan. 

PLANTS  USED  FOR  PAPER,  HATS,  UTENSILS,  AND  OTHER 
PURPOSES 

A  large  number  of  plants  in  tropical  countries  have  been 
found  useful  as  a  source  of  material  for  tying,  for  weaving 
baskets  and  various  household  utensils,  and  for  the  manu- 
facture of  hats  and  coarse  garments.  Most  of  these  plants 


188  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

are  not  cultivated  and  the  material  is  therefore  taken  from  the 
wild  plants.  Few  of  the  plants  have  ever  become  familiar  to 
the  inhabitants  of  northern  climates. 

Mitsumata  (Edgeworthia  papyri/era)  is  one  of  the  three 
most  important  plants  used  in  the  paper  industries  of  Japan. 
It  is  a  small  bush  propagated  by  seed  or  cuttings  and  is  cul- 
tivated on  a  large  scale  in  Japan.  The  material  comes  upon 
the  market  in  the  form  of  raw  stripped  bast  either  bleached 
or  unbleached.  The  strips  range  in  length  from  6  to  8  feet 
and  are  whitish  or  yellow  in  color.  The  yield  of  bast  is  about 
600  pounds  per  acre.  The  crop  comes  into  bearing  on  the 
second  year  and  yields  are  obtained  on  alternate  years  there- 
after. In  manufacturing  paper  the  material  is  treated  some- 
what in  the  same  manner  as  tapa. 

Rice  paper  plant  (Fatsia  papyrifera)  is  native  of  Formosa, 
where  it  grows  extensively  in  the  swampy  forest  of  that  island. 
When  fully  grown  it  is  a  small  tree  branching  quite  freely  at 
the  top.  The  stems  are  filled  with  pith  of  a  fine  texture,  pure 
white,  and  this  material  is  extensively  used  in  making  Chinese 
rice  paper. 

Ganpi  (Wikstrcemia  canescens)  is  native  of  Japan,  but  re- 
lated species  occur  in  various  parts  of  the  Tropics.  Ganpi  is 
a  shrub  which  is  much  cultivated  for  paper  stock  in  Japan. 
The  shrub  comes  to  bearing  age  at  3  to  7  years.  The  yield  of 
raw  bark  per  acre  annually  is  about  1,000  pounds.  The  large 
proportion  of  the  ganpi  which  comes  into  trade  is  obtained 
from  wild  trees.  W.  viridiflora,  a  native  of  Hawaii,  yields  a 
bast  used  by  the  Hawaiians  for  rope  and  twine. 

Rice  straw  is  extensively  used  in  Japan  for  making  paper. 
The  annual  produce  of  rice  straw  in  Japan  is  about  15,000,000 
tons.  This  material  is  not  only  used  in  making  paper,  but  also 
to  a  large  extent  in  plait  work  for  making  bags,  ropes,  mats, 
raincoats,  sandals,  hats,  thatching,  and  for  many  purposes 
which  appear  possible  only  by  the  help  of  the  ingenuity  and 
patience  of  the  Oriental.  The  Chinese  and  Japanese  banana 


FIBER  PLANTS  189 

growers  of  Hawaii  at  one  time  devised  a  method  for  success- 
fully wrapping  banana  bunches  with  wisps  of  rice  straw. 

Baobab  (Adansonia  digitata)  is  one  of  the  giants  among 
the  trees.  It  belongs  to  the  mallow  family  and  is  native  of 
Africa.  The  trunk  of  the  tree  attains  a  huge  size.  The  inner 
bark  is  stripped  off  into  sheets  and  the  bast  obtained  from 
this  bark  has  been  found  to  be  suitable  for  paper,  cheap  cord- 
age, and  sacking.  The  tree  is  cultivated  to  some  extent  in 
Madagascar  and  Reunion  but  thus  far  has  attained  no  com- 
mercial importance. 

Tapa  (Broussonetia  papyrifera),  or  paper  mulberry,  is  a 
native  of  Polynesia,  China,  Japan,  Siam,  etc.  Tapa  is  a  small 
bush  which  is  widely  distributed  throughout  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  as  well  as  the  other  parts  of  the  Polynesian  group. 
The  bast  obtained  from  the  bark  of  this  shrub  is  easily  pulped 
and  is  used  for  making  paper  in  Japan,  for  the  manufacture 
of  papier-mache  articles  in  Burma,  and  for  tapa  cloth  in 
Hawaii,  Fiji,  and  Samoa.  The  bark  is  peeled  off  in  strips, 
after  which  the  outer  coat  is  scraped  off  with  shells.  The 
strips  are  laid  on  a  smooth  log  and  beaten  with  a  hardwood 
mallet.  The  strips  are  then  united  by  overlapping  the  edges 
and  beating  them  together.  Tapa  cloth  varies  in  weight  from 
a  muslin-like  fabric  to  a  material  resembling  leather.  It  was 
used  by  the  ancient  Hawaiians  for  pa-u  or  riding  garments, 
for  making  the  malo  or  girdle,  mantles,  blankets,  burial  cloths, 
and  for  numerous  ornamental  purposes.  The  tapa  fabrics 
were  colored  usually  yellow,  red,  and  black  in  curious  figures. 
The  finest  grades  of  tapa  are  of  extreme  value.  The  manu- 
facture of  tapa,  however,  is  a  lost  art  in  Hawaii.  The  ma- 
terial is  no  longer  made  by  the  natives,  although  tapa  is 
still  made  by  the  natives  of  Samoa.  The  mamake  (Pipturus 
gaudichaudianus)  has  also  been  much  used  in  Hawaii  in 
making  tapa  cloth. 

Screw  pine  (Pandanus  utilis)  and  other  species  of  Pan- 
danus  occur  widely  throughout  the  Tropics.  They  are  palm- 


190  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

like  trees  10  to  40  feet  high,  with  aerial  straddling  roots  at  the 
base  of  the  trunk  and  tufted  leaves  usually  with  spiny  edges. 
The  leaves  are  cut,  allowed  to  dry,  and  slit  into  strips,  after 
which  they  are  used  for  thatching  and  for  the  manufacture 
of  baskets,  mats,  cordage,  etc.  P.  odoratissimus  is  widely  used 
in  Hawaii  for  weaving  the  so-called  lauhala  mats.  This  is 
one  of  the  best  materials  for  floor  matting  in  Hawaii.  The 
leaves  are  either  split  in  halves  so  as  to  remove  the  midrib 
or  are  slit  into  narrower  strips.  If  split  in  halves,  the  strips 
are  about  one  inch  wide.  These  strips  make  a  coarser  mat- 
ting which  is  not  so  expensive  as  matting  made  from  ^4-inch 
strips.  The  lauhala  mats  in  the  moist  climate  of  the  Tropics 
are  almost  indestructible.  When  brought  to  dry  climates 
they  require  moistening  occasionally  to  prevent  them  from 
becoming  brittle. 

The  nipa  palm  (Nipa  fruticans),  a  native  of  India,  Andaman 
Islands,  etc.,  and  generally  distributed  throughout  the  Tropics, 
bears  leaves  which  are  much  prized  as  material  for  making 
hats,  mattings,  and  various  utensils.  The  nipa  leaves  are 
probably  the  most  durable  of  all  palm  leaves  for  thatching 
purposes. 

Bear  grass  (Yucca  filamentosa)  and  various  other  species 
of  Yucca  have  been  used  in  the  southwestern  portion  of  the 
United  States  and  in  several  tropical  countries  as  a  source 
of  fiber  suitable  for  coarse  wrapping,  sacking,  fabrics  and 
cordage.  Bear  grass  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  cultivated  for 
that  purpose.  For  the  most  parts  wild  plants  are  used.  The 
leaves  are  cut  from  the  plants  on  the  arid  plains  where  they 
grow  and  are  baled  and  shipped  to  cordage  factories. 

Several  species  of  palmetto  palms  furnish  material  which 
is  used  for  fiber  for  brushes  and  other  purposes.  Chamarops 
humilis  of  Algeria  and  other  Mediterranean  countries  bears 
leaves  which  when  shredded  yield  a  vegetable  hair  or  African 
fiber  useful  as  a  substitute  for  curled  hair.  The  tree  attains 
a  height  of  20  to  30  feet  but  is  often  dwarf.  The  leaves 


FIBER  PLANTS  191 

have  a  spread  of  3  feet  or  more.  The  leaves  of  various  other 
species  of  Chamaerops  as  well  as  Spanish  moss  are  used  for 
similar  purposes.  The  sabal  palmetto,  or  cabbage  palmetto 
of  Florida,  develops  fibrous  spathes  upon  the  leaf  sheaths 
around  the  "cabbage."  This  material  is  prepared  by  crushing 
and  combing  for  use  in  manufacturing  brushes,  hats,  and  for 
other  purposes.  The  saw  palmetto,  a  dwarf  trunkless  palm 
of  Florida  and  Georgia,  yields  a  fiber  from  the  leaf  stems 
which  is  used  to  some  extent  as  a  substitute  for  cow  hair  in 
mortar. 

The  Panama  hat  plant  (Carludovica  palmata),  a  native  of 
Central  America  and  South  America  and  cultivated  in  Ecuador, 
Colombia,  Peru,  and  other  countries,  bears  plaited,  fan-like 
leaves  4  feet  across  and  incised  into  4  or  5  divisions.  The 
young  leaves  are  cut  at  the  time  of  unfolding,  after  which 
they  are  torn  into  ^-mch  strips  and  later  into  narrower  strips 
or  straws,  bleached  by  sulphuring,  and  dried  in  the  sun.  This 
material  brings  50  to  60  cents  a  pound  at  the  point  of  produc- 
tion. The  plants  mature  at  about  3  years  of  age.  C.  jamai- 
censis  is  used  in  a  similar  way  in  making  jippa-jappa  hats. 

The  lace  bark  tree  (Lagetta  lintearia)  of  Jamaica  attains  a 
height  of  25  to  30  feet.  The  inner  bark  is  readily  separated 
into  sheets  which  when  stretched  form  a  pentagonal  mesh 
structure  like  lace  and  much  used  for  ornamental  purposes. 
The  bark  of  this  tree  resembles  that  of  the  paper  birch.  It 
is  of  a  yellowish-white  color  and  in  addition  to  ornamental 
uses  has  been  found  valuable  for  paper  cordage  and  even 
in  the  manufacture  of  cloth. 

Pulu  is  a  lustrous,  golden-brown  fiber  which  develops  at 
the  base  of  the  leaf  stalks  of  the  large  tree  ferns  which  occur 
so  abundantly  in  the  mountains  of  Hawaii  and  other  Pacific 
Islands.  This  material  has  been  much  used  for  stuffing  pil- 
lows and  in  surgery  in  stanching  the  flow  of  blood.  Each 
plant  yields  2  or  3  ounces  of  fiber.  In  the  eighties  of  the 
last  century,  Hawaii  exported  about  200,000  pounds  of  pulu 


192  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

annually.  At  present  there  is  no  industry  in  connection 
with  this  material.  The  pulu  fiber  was  obtained  chiefly  from 
Cibotium  menziesii,  C.  chamissoi,  and  C.  glaucum. 

Rattan  is  the  name  applied  to  climbing  palms  of  numerous 
species  belonging  to  the  genus  Calamus,  especially  C.  rotang. 
These  palms  attain  great  length  up  to  300  to  400  feet,  espe- 
cially in  India  and  China.  The  slender  canes  are  used  by 
the  natives  in  making  ladders,  foot  bridges,  utensils,  hats,  and 
for  other  purposes.  In  Europe  and  the  United  States,  rattan, 
however,  is  chiefly  used  for  furniture,  baskets,  umbrellas, 
walking  sticks,  as  a  substitute  for  whalebone,  and  in  numerous 
other  ways. 

Bamboo  (Bambusa  arundinacea)  of  India,  East  Indies, 
China,  Algeria,  and  generally  distributed  throughout  the  Trop- 
ics is  a  slender  tree  60  to  80  feet  high,  propagated  by  shoots 
and  stem  cuttings.  There  are  thousands  of  acres  covered  with 
this  species  in  a  wild  condition  and  it  is  also  widely  cultivated. 
Bamboo  shoots  i  or  2  years  old  are  much  used  as  paper  stock. 
For  this  purpose  the  stems  are  split  and  macerated  in  water 
7  to  10  days.  This  material  forms  the  chief  paper  stock  in 
China.  Bamboo  is  also  used  in  China,  Japan,  Java,  Sumatra, 
and  elsewhere  for  every  conceivable  purpose — for  sails, 
houses,  furniture,  mats,  screens,  utensils  of  all  kinds,  and 
even  coarse  underclothing  and  pipes.  Various  other  species 
of  bamboo  are  also  useful  but  are  of  less  commercial  im- 
portance than  the  species  just  mentioned. 

Sponge  cucumber  (Luff a  agyptiaca) ,  a  climbing  cucurbit 
vine  widely  distributed  in  the  Tropics,  is  used  in  India  as  a 
vegetable.  When,  however,  the  pulp  is  retted  away  in  water, 
a  fibrous  interlacing  network  is  left,  suitable  for  use  as  a 
sponge  and  commonly  called  vegetable  sponge.  The  plant  is 
cultivated  for  this  purpose,  chiefly  in  Japan,  whence  1,000,000 
vegetable  sponges  were  formerly  exported  annually.  The 
industry  is  of  much  less  importance  at  present. 


CHAPTER   XIII 
RUBBERS   AND   GUMS 

AT  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America  the  natives  of 
Central  America  and  South  America  were  found  to  be  quite 
familiar  with  the  properties  of  rubber  and  were  using  rubber 
for  waterproofing  garments  and  shoes  and  in  making  vessels 
and  utensils  of  various  kinds.  A  few  years  ago  a  mass  of 
rubber  was  found  in  an  olla,  which  was  unburied  in  making 
some  excavations  in  an  old  Indian  village  in  Arizona.  The 
conditions  under  which  the  rubber  was  found  furnished  quite 
conclusive  evidence  that  the  particular  mass  of  rubber  was 
not  less  than  300  years  old.  The  mass  of  rubber  had  become 
oxidized  and  brittle  to  a  depth  of  about  J^>  inch.  The  inner 
portion  of  the  mass,  however,  retained  apparently  its  full 
elasticity.  A  French  explorer  sent  specimens  of  rubber  from 
Ecuador  to  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences  in  1736.  Castil- 
loa  rubber  was  described  in  1798,  Hevea  rubber  in  1865,  and 
Ceara  rubber  in  1874.  There  are  a  few  other  important  dates 
in  the  development  of  the  rubber  industry.  Priestley  sug- 
gested the  use  of  rubber  for  erasers  in  1770.  The  process  of 
waterproofing  fabrics  was  invented  by  Macintosh  in  1820.  The 
process  of  vulcanization  of  rubber  was  discovered  by  Good- 
year in  1839  and  was  later  modified  by  Hancock  in  England. 
Previous  to  this  discovery,  rubber  was  of  little  commercial 
importance  and  was  used  only  in  small  quantities  for  the  few 
purposes  to  which  it  had  been  found  to  be  adapted  in  its 
unmodified  condition. 

Vulcanization  consists  essentially  in  heating  rubber  with 
sulphur.  A  combination  takes  place,  whether  of  a  physical 

193 


194  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

or  chemical  nature  or  both.  The  resulting  product  retains 
its  elasticity  much  longer  and  through  a  much  greater  range 
of  temperature  than  is  true  for  pure  rubber.  Rubber  may 
be  vulcanized  by  heating  a  mixture  of  rubber  and  sulphur, 
or  by  dipping  in  melted  sulphur,  or  by  treating  the  rubber 
with  sulphur  monochlorid.  In  the  simple  process  of  heating 
a  mixture  of  rubber  and  sulphur,  the  rubber  is  ordinarily 
mixed  with  4  to  40  per  cent,  of  sulphur  and  heated  to  a 
temperature  of  125°  to  150°  C. 

Rubber  is  an  elastic  substance  belonging  to  the  hydrocarbon 
series  and  having  the  chemical  formula  (C10H16)x.  It  is 
obtained  by  coagulating  the  latex  of  a  number  of  plants  which 
are  native  chiefly  to  Central  and  South  America  and  Central 
Africa.  The  milky  juice  or  latex  of  rubber-bearing  plants 
is  contained  in  the  series  of  latex  tubes  and  communicating 
structures  which  together  constitute  the  latex  system.  The 
arrangement  of  the  latex  tubes  is  somewhat  different  in  dif- 
ferent species  of  trees.  In  Kickxia  they  are  distributed  chiefly 
just  under  the  epidermis,  immediately  outside  of  the  cambium 
and  in  the  outer  part  of  the  pith  bordering  on  the  woody 
tissue.  There  are  numerous  strands  of  the  latex  system 
connecting  the  latex  tubes  in  the  outer  and  inner  portions  of 
the  bark.  The  main  latex  system  in  Hevea  or  the  Para  rubber 
tree  is  an  inner  belt  located  about  halfway  between  the  epi- 
dermis and  the  cambium  and  no  latex  tubes  occur  in  the  pith. 
In  Ficus,  the  latex  tubes  are  chiefly  found  in  the  bark  near 
the  cambium.  In  young  trees,  however,  they  occur  throughout 
the  pith.  In  the  Castilloa,  the  main  latex  system  is  in  the 
bark  and  a  few  strands  of  latex  tubes  are  located  in  the  pith 
immediately  underneath  the  wood  tissue.  In  Ceara  rubber 
trees,  the  latex  tubes  are  found  almost  exclusively  in  the  bark 
outside  of  the  cambium.  In  order  to  obtain  a  full  yield  of 
latex,  therefore,  it  is  unnecessary  to  injure  the  cambium.  The 
large  number  of  connecting  tubes  between  the  main  longi- 
tudinal trunks  of  the  latex  system  is  conspicuous  in  Ceara 


RUBBERS  AND  GUMS  195 

rubber  trees  and  partly  accounts  for  the  ready  flow  of  latex 
from  rubber  trees  made  in  tapping  wounds  in  any  direction. 

Latex  is  almost  invariably  white,  resembling  milk  in  appear- 
ance and  consistency,  and  is  essentially  an  emulsion  containing 
minute  globules  of  rubber,  together  with  resins  and  proteids 
associated  with  the  rubber  in  a  watery  solution.  The  globules 
of  rubber  vary  greatly  in  size  in  different  species  of  rubber 
trees.  The  specific  gravity  of  latex  is  ordinarily  a  little  lower 
than  that  of  water.  Latex  contains  from  48  to  75  per  cent, 
of  water,  according  to  the  species  of  the  rubber  tree,  and  a 
variable  percentage  of  resin,  proteid,  and  ash.  These  latter 
constituents  are  considered  as  impurities  and  as  depreciating 
the  value  of  the  rubber  product  if  they  occur  in  too  high 
percentages.  The  proportion  of  proteid,  resin,  and  ash  is 
considerably  higher  in  young  than  in  old  mature  trees.  The 
percentage  of  these  impurities  also  varies  considerably  accord- 
ing to  the  species  of  rubber  tree.  The  lowest  percentage  of 
resin,  proteid,  and  ash  is  found  in  the  latex  or  rubber  of  mature 
Hevea  trees. 

The  physical  constitution  of  latex  being  that  of  an  emulsion, 
the  coagulation  of  the  latex  may  be  brought  about  by  any  chem- 
ical or  physical  process  which  will  disturb  the  equilibrium 
in  the  emulsion  and  favor  the  segregation  of  the  solid  constitu- 
ents of  the  latex.  Coagulation  of  rubber  latex  has  been  accom- 
plished by  various  methods.  The  latex  of  most  rubber  trees 
will  undergo  a  spontaneous  coagulation  within  a  fairly  short 
time.  The  latex  may  also  be  diluted  with  water  and  the 
whole  mixture  allowed  to  stand  for  24  hours  or  more.  This 
method  may  be  used  with  Ceara  rubber  as  well  as  with  Castil- 
loa  rubber.  After  standing  the  rubber,  being  lighter  than 
water,  collects  upon  the  water  like  cream,  while  the  water 
remains  below.  Rubber  may  also  be  separated  from  the  watery 
solution  by  centrifugal  machines  similar  to  the  dairy  separator. 
Various  other  chemical  and  physical  means  have  been  used 
in  coagulating  latex.  The  latex  of  Hevea  and  Landolphia  may 


196  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

be  readily  coagulated  by  gentle  heat.  The  same  applies  to  the 
highly  resinous  latex  of  Euphorbia  lorifolia  of  Hawaii.  Among 
the  chemicals  which  have  been  used  in  hastening  the  coagula- 
tion of  latex  we  may  mention  acetic,  citric,  tannic,  and  formic 
acids,  various  salts  of  sodium  and  magnesium,  alkaline  liquids, 
and  alcohol  and  acetone.  The  two  last  named  reagents  are 
used  only  in  laboratory  experiments,  being  too  expensive  for 
field  practice. 

In  tapping  rubber  trees  for  obtaining  the  latex,  almost  every 
conceivable  manner  of  wounding  the  bark  of  trees  has  been 
tried.  The  tapping  systems  vary  somewhat,  according  to  the 
species  of  tree,  and  brief  mention  is  made  of  perfected  methods 
in  connection  with  the  discussion  of  the  important  kinds  of 
rubber  trees.  If  all  of  the  kinds  of  tapping  tools  were  brought 
together  they  would  constitute  a  quite  formidable  arsenal  of 
instruments,  including  hatchet-like  structures,  all  possible 
shapes  and  sizes  of  knives,  shaves,  paring  utensils,  and  revolv- 
ing wheel  prickers.  The  cuts  commonly  made  in  the  bark  in 
a  tapping  operation  also  vary  greatly  in  length  and  arrange- 
ment. The  usual  systems  of  tapping  include  long,  longitudinal 
incisions  into  which  short,  oblique  incisions  may  run,  various 
lengths  of  V-shaped  cuts,  spiral  and  semi-spiral  cuts  about 
the  trunk  of  the  tree,  the  herringbone  and  half-herringbone 
system  of  tapping,  horizontal  incisions,  simple  shallow  pricks 
with  a  revolving  wheel  like  that  in  a  riding  spur,  etc. 

For  many  years  the  rubber  growers  have  been  periodically 
worried  with  the  bugaboo  of  artificial  rubber.  Synthetic  rub- 
ber has  been  produced  in  many  laboratories  in  England  and 
in  Continental  Europe.  At  a  recent  rubber  exposition  in 
London  an  automobile  was  exhibited  with  tires  made  entirely 
of  artificial  rubber.  It  was  reported,  however,  that  these  tires 
cost  about  $4,000.  Many  patents  have  been  taken  out  covering 
processes  for  manufacturing  artificial  rubber  in  the  United 
States,  England,  Russia,  France,  and  Germany.  Some  of  these 
processes  are  strictly  secret,  while  others  have  been  published 


RUBBERS  AND  GUMS  197 

quite  widely.  Recently  the  Russian  Government  has  an- 
nounced a  process  for  the  manufacture  of  artificial  rubber 
from  vodka,  and  a  similar  process  has  been  patented  for 
making  rubber  out  of  alcohol  in  the  United  States.  The  possi- 
bility of  producing  artificial  rubber  on  a  real  commercial  basis 
cannot  be  denied  in  toto,  but  synthetic  rubber  is  still  in  an 
experimental  condition  without  commercial  importance.  As 
has  been  well  said,  synthetic  rubber  is  heard  much  more  than 
seen. 

Para  rubber  (Hevea  brasiliensis)  is  a  native  of  the  Amazon 
region  and  is  now  cultivated  in  Ceylon,  Federated  Malay 
States,  and  various  other  places  in  the  Tropics.  This  tree  is 
the  source  of  the  commercial  Para  rubber.  In  Ceylon  and 
the  Federated  Malay  States  there  are  now  about  680,000  acres 
of  plantation  Hevea  from  which  the  exportation  of  Para  rub- 
ber in  1913  was  12,300  tons.  The  Hevea  tree  is  usually  planted 
at  the  rate  of  100  to  150  per  acre.  It  is  customary  to  begin 
tapping  the  trees  at  5  years  of  age  and  the  annual  yield  at  this 
age  may  be  stated  as  about  J^  pound  per  tree.  At  10  years 
of  age  the  yield  is  2  or  3  pounds,  while  at  15  years  it  reaches 
4  to  6  pounds  per  tree  per  year.  The  Hevea  tree  reaches  a 
height  of  100  feet  when  mature  and  a  girth  of  6  to  12  feet 

The  Ceylon  light  crepe  rubber,  obtained  from  plantation 
Hevea,  was  once  the  world's  standard  for  rubber.  At  present, 
however,  Upriver  Para  rubber  from  Brazil  brings  the  highest 
price.  The  wild  trees  in  Brazil  are  tapped  daily  or  every  other 
day  or  about  90  to  120  times  during  the  dry  season.  The  tap- 
pers use  a  small  ax  with  i-inch  blade  and  attach  a  cup  below 
each  incision.  The  latex  is  collected  and  taken  to  the  huts 
of  the  laborers,  where  it  is  coagulated  in  the  hot  smoke  of 
burning  palm  nuts  into  balls  weighing  40  to  135  pounds.  On 
Hevea  plantations,  tapping  begins  when  the  trees  have  a  girth 
of  20  inches  3  feet  from  the  ground.  It  has  been  found  that 
the  flow  of  latex  is  most  profuse  in  early  morning.  The  most 
widely  used  system  of  tapping  is  the  half-herringbone  method, 


198  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  trunk  being  divided  into  four  vertical  zones  for  this  pur- 
pose. The  phenomenon  of  ''wound  response"  is  much  utilized 
in  tapping  Hevea.  This  phrase  refers  to  the  fact  that  within 
certain  limits  the  quickly  healing  surface  of  the  cut  in  the 
bark  of  the  Hevea  will  yield  increasing  amounts  by  tapping  it 
for  3  to  5  days,  after  which  a  resting  period  is  allowed.  The 
full  herringbone  system,  spiral,  half-spiral,  and  V-shaped 
incisions  have  also  been  used  in  tapping  Hevea.  For  use  in 
these  different  methods  of  tapping  more  than  50  specially 
devised  tapping  instruments  have  been  manufactured  and 
patented. 

Para  rubber  contains  about  95  per  cent,  caoutchouc,  1.5 
per  cent,  resin,  2.5  per  cent,  protein,  0.5  per  cent,  ash,  and 
.5  per  cent,  moisture. 

Ceara  or  Manitoba  rubber  (Manihot  glaziovii)  is  a  native 
of  Brazil.  This  tree  bears  a  3  to  9-parted,  usually  5-parted, 
leaf  like  that  of  cassava,  instead  of  the  3-parted  leaf  as  in 
Hevea.  The  bark  is  thin  and  smooth,  the  outer  layer  of  bark 
greatly  resembling  that  of  the  cherry  tree.  The  Ceara  tree 
reaches  a  height  of  50  feet  or  more  and  a  diameter  of  2  feet 
or  greater.  The  trunk  commonly  forks  into  three  or  more 
main  branches.  In  Brazil,  the  Ceara  rubber  tree  is  tapped 
during  a  period  of  7  or  8  weeks  in  the  dry  season.  The  tap- 
ping wounds  are  made  at  the  base  of  the  trunk  or  on  the 
upper  surface  of  the  roots  and  the  latex  is  allowed  to  run  out 
on  the  soil,  after  which  it  is  collected  and  washed.  Ceara 
trunks  may  be  tapped  by  slits  or  punctures  on  V-shaped  cuts 
after  stripping  the  outer  bark.  In  Hawaii,  a  comparison  was 
made  of  a  large  number  of  methods  of  tapping  Ceara  rubber 
trees.  The  best  and  most  economic  results  were  obtained  from 
stripping  the  outer  bark  in  narrow  vertical  slits  and  making 
several  oblique  stabs  in  the  exposed  inner  bark  by  means  of 
a  flat  chisel-like  knife  producing  an  incision  about  an  inch 
in  length.  Results  almost  as  satisfactory  were  obtained  by 
running  a  wheel  pricker  up  and  down  the  exposed  strip  of 


RUBBERS  AND  GUMS  199 

bark.  In  tapping  young  trees  good  results  were  obtained  from 
the  use  of  long  V-shaped  cuts  leading  nearly  to  the  base  of 
the  tree.  The  flow  of  latex  has  been  found  to  be  most  pro- 
fuse from  the  base  of  the  trunk  and  decidedly  less  vigorous 
from  the  upper  portion  of  the  trunk.  In  Hawaii,  the  method 
adopted  on  Ceara  plantations  in  preparing  rubber  consists 
merely  in  the  use  of  the  ordinary  rubber  mangier  through 
which  a  continuous  stream  of  water  runs  during  the  cleaning 
process.  By  this  machine  the  latex  is  freed  of  dirt  and  much 
of  the  resin,  proteid,  and  other  impurities  under  the  great 
pressure  of  the  mangier  and  the  dissolving  influence  of  the 
water.  The  thick  crepe-like  sheets  into  which  it  is  finally 
rolled  are  then  dried  in  the  vacuum  drier.  Ceara  rubber  con- 
tains about  91.5  per  cent,  caoutchouc,  1.5  per  cent,  ash,  0.5 
per  cent,  moisture,  3.5  per  cent,  resin,  and  3  per  cent,  protein. 

Other  species  of  Manihot  are  also  being  tested  in  various 
rubber-growing  districts,  but  commercial  experience  with  these 
species  is  too  recent  for  reliable  opinions  The  species  which 
have  received  most  attention  are  M.  dichotoma,  M.  piauhyen- 
sis,  and  M.  heptaphylla. 

The  African  rubber  tree  (Funtumia  elastica)  has  been  com- 
monly referred  to  as  the  source  of  Lagos  silk  rubber.  The 
tree  bears  smooth  oblong  leaves  5  to  10  inches  long  and  I  to  4 
inches  wide.  The  trunk  is  erect  and  tapering,  covered  with  a 
mottled  gray  bark,  and  reaches  a  height  of  100  feet  at  maturity. 
In  Central  Africa,  from  Sierra  Leone  to  the  East  African 
Protectorate,  the  native  methods  of  collecting  Funtumia  rubber 
were  to  cut  down  trees  and  then  slit  the  bark  or  coagulate 
the  latex  in  the  bark  by  heat.  The  bark  was  then  beaten  into 
fragments  from  which  the  rubber  was  gradually  collected  into 
shreds  or  balls.  Later  the  natives  adopted  the  full  herring- 
bone system  of  tapping  and  carried  the  tapping  wounds  up 
the  trunk  to  a  height  of  50  feet  with  the  help  of  ladders  and 
slings.  Funtumia  latex  is  rather  difficult  to  coagulate.  It 
coagulates  spontaneously  only  after  standing  about  6  weeks. 


200  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

The  latex  may  be  coagulated,  however,  by  the  gentle  appli- 
cation of  heat  or  by  adding  an  infusion  of  the  leaves  of 
Bauhinia  reticulata  or  of  Strophanthus  preussii.  On  planta- 
tions of  Funtumia  these  methods  and  "creaming,"  or  diluting 
the  latex  with  5  to  10  times  its  volume  of  water,  are  used. 
Chemical  coagulations  have  also  been  tried.  Spiral  tapping 
and  vertical  cuts  have  given  the  best  yield,  but  the  yield  of 
Funtumia  rubber  varies  greatly  and  is  apparently  less  than 
that  of  Hevea  trees  of  the  same  size.  Funtumia  rubber  con- 
tains 86.5  per  cent,  caoutchouc,  0.5  per  cent,  moisture,  6  per 
cent,  resin,  6  per  cent,  protein,  and  I  per  cent.  ash. 

The  Central  American  rubber  tree  (Castilloa  elastica)  is  a 
quick-growing  tree  with  soft  rather  smooth  bark  and  large 
hairy  leaves,  12  to  20  inches  long  and  5  inches  wide.  The 
temporary  deciduous  branches,  sometimes  10  feet  long,  form 
on  the  young  trees  and  later  fall  off.  Permanent  branches 
develop  only  after  3  or  4  years.  The  geographical  range  of 
the  Castilloa  rubber  tree  is  from  22°  N.  in  Mexico  to  Peru. 
In  Mexico  the  tree  occurs  chiefly  in  the  States  of  Vera  Cruz, 
Oaxaca,  Chiapas,  Tabasco,  and  Campeche.  The  Castilloa 
rubber  tree  is  ordinarily  planted  at  the  rate  of  100  to  150  per 
acre.  The  trees  are  tappable  at  the  age  of  6  or  7  years.  They 
may  reach  a  height  at  maturity  of  175  feet  and  a  diameter  of 
4  feet.  The  natives  of  Mexico  and  Central  America  tap  the 
Castilloa  tree  with  a  machete  by  the  system  of  slanting  cuts 
or  half-herringbone  method.  V-cuts  8  to  12  inches  apart  are 
also  much  in  favor.  Spiral  incisions  and  other  methods  of 
tapping  have  also  been  used  by  the  natives.  For  coagulating 
Castilloa  latex  the  natives  use  heat,  ashes,  soap,  or  an  infusion 
of  Ipomcea  bona-nox.  On  plantations  of  Castilloa  the  methods 
employed  are  creaming  in  large  vats  or  the  use  of  centrifugal 
cream  separators. 

Castilloa  trees  are  commonly  tapped  only  three  times  an- 
nually. The  average  yield  is  2y2  to"  3  pounds  per  tree  per 
year.  Some  old  wild  trees  of  great  size  have  yielded  as  high 


CASTILLOA  RUBBER  TREES  SHOWING  METHOD  OF  TAPPING 


RUBBERS  AND  GUMS  201 

as  10  pounds  of  dry  rubber  in  one  year.  The  composition  of 
Castilloa  rubber  varies  enormously,  the  resin  varying  from  6 
to  50  per  cent.,  as  prepared  by  different  methods.  The  usual 
composition  of  Castilloa  sheets  obtained  by  the  centrifugal 
method  is  caoutchouc  91.5  per  cent.,  resin  7.2  per  cent.,  protein 
0.5  per  cent,  ash  0.3  per  cent.,  and  moisture  0.5  per  cent. 

The  Assam  rubber  tree  (Ficus  elastica)  is  an  evergreen 
tree  with  smooth  elliptical  leaves,  attaining  a  height  of  120 
feet  or  more  at  maturity  This  tree  is  not  much  cultivated  and 
tapping  is  done,  for  the  most  part,  in  vertical  rows  of  wedge 
excisions  made  with  a  chisel  or  by  means  of  deep  V-shaped 
cuts.  The  tree  is  tappable  at  6  years  of  age.  The  latex  is 
coagulated  by  allowing  it  to  stand  for  a  long  time  or  by  the 
addition  of  formalin.  The  yield  from  wild  trees  is  about 
50  pounds  per  acre  and  the  composition  of  the  rubber  is  caout- 
chouc 77  per  cent.,  resin  19.3  per  cent.,  ash  0.5  per  cent,  pro- 
tein 3.2  per  cent.,  and  moisture  0.5  per  cent.  Various  other 
species  of  Ficus  have  been  exploited  to  some  extent  as  sources 
of  rubber. 

Rubber  vines  include  species  of  Landolphia,  Clitandra,  and 
Cryptostegia.  The  species  of  Landolphia  are  woody  climbers, 
native  of  Africa  with  simple  opposite  leaves,  sweet-scented 
flowers,  and  large,  often  highly-colored  edible  fruit.  These 
climbers  are  of  very  slow  growth  and  are  not  tappable  until 
they  reach  the  age  of  8  or  10  years.  Some  of  them  attain 
a  diameter  of  12  inches  and  a  length  of  300  feet  or  more.  The 
rubber  is  collected  by  incising  the  bark  and  allowing  the  latex 
to  coagulate  in  the  cuts  or  by  collecting  the  latex  in  the  bark 
and  coagulating  it  by  heat,  chemical  reagents,  or  plant  juices. 
Sometimes  trunks  of  Landolphia  are  pulled  down  from  the 
trees  upon  which  they  have  been  climbing,  cut  into  short 
lengths,  and  the  latex  allowed  to  run  out. 

The  most  promising  root  rubbers  are  Landolphia  tholloni, 
Clitandra  arnoldiana,  and  Raphlonacme  utilis.  Rubber  is  ob- 
tained from  these  plants  by  beating  the  separated  bark  or  by 


202  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

rasping  and  boiling  the  roots.  The  composition  of  the  Landol- 
phia  heudelotii  rubber  is,  ordinarily,  caoutchouc  91.3  per  cent., 
resin  5.9  per  cent.,  protein  1.4  per  cent.,  and  ash  1.4  per  cent. 

Guayule  (Parthenium  argentatum)  is  a  barely  shrubby  plant 
belonging  to  the  Composite  family  and  native  of  Texas,  New 
Mexico,  and  Mexico.  The  plant  attains  a  height  of  I  to  3 
feet  and  is  characterized  by  silvery  gray  bark  and  leaves,  and 
yellow  flowers  which  appear  in  September.  The  plants  are 
cut,  dried,  and  shredded  and  the  rubber  is  then  extracted  by 
patented  processes.  Commercial  attention  was  first  called  to 
the  plant  in  1876,  although  it  must  still  remain  doubtful 
whether  the  Indians  were  not  familiar  with  the  guayule  plant 
as  a  source  of  rubber.  The  latex  cells  are  in  the  bark  and 
pith.  The  crude  rubber  obtained  by  the  patented  processes 
now  in  use  equals  8  or  10  per  cent,  of  the  dry  weight  of  the 
stems.  Guayule  rubber  contains  20  to  30  per  cent,  of  resin. 
The  rubber  is  of  fair  grade  and  is  used  in  the  manufacture 
of  rubber  boots  and  for  similar  purposes. 

The  rubber-yielding  plants  of  commercial  importance  be- 
long chiefly  to  the  botanical  families  of  Euphorbiacese,  Urtica- 
ceae,  and  Apocynacese,  and  to  a  smaller  extent  to  Asclepiada- 
cese  and  Composite.  More  than  80  species  of  trees  and  vines 
have  been  used  as  a  source  of  rubber,  but  only  those  which 
have  been  mentioned  in  the  previous  discussion  have  attained 
any  real  commercial  importance.  All  commercial  rubber-bear- 
ing plants,  with  the  exception  of  the  guayule,  are  confined  to 
the  Tropics.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  the  development 
of  latex  in  plants  seems  to  occur  much  more  commonly  in  the 
Tropics  than  in  the  cold  climates.  Much  discussion  has  been 
had  as  to  the  function  of  latex  in  plants,  but  no  agreement 
has  been  reached  as  to  what  this  function  is.  The  latex  has 
been  supposed  to  be  a  storage  material  for  the  nutrition  of 
plants.  It  has  also  been  suggested  that  it  has  an  important 
function  in  protecting  trees  against  attacks  of  insects  and 
against  injuries.  The  fact  that  the  latex  runs  out  so  promptly 


RUBBERS  AND  GUMS  203 

after  a  slight  injury  of  the  bark  and  coagulates  within  a  short 
time  after  exposure  to  the  air  has  been  cited  as  showing  how 
effectively  the  latex  protects  the  tree  against  wounds.  As  al- 
ready indicated,  latex  commonly  contains  from  55  to  70  per 
cent,  of  water  and  a  varying  percentage  of  resin  which  de- 
creases with  the  age  of  the  tree  in  all  commercial  rubber  plants 
except  Hevea,  in  which  even  in  young  trees  the  latex  contains 
only  about  2.^/2.  per  cent,  of  resin. 

From  many  related  plants  the  abundant  latex  is  so  low  in 
caoutchouc  and  so  high  in  resin  that  the  dried  product  is  used 
for  other  purposes  than  rubber.  Some  of  the  most  important 
cases  in  point  are  chicle,  balata,  gutta-percha,  and  jelutong, 
which  are  discussed  below. 

At  the  present  time  the  areas  planted  in  rubber  are  in  Ma- 
laya 625,000  acres,  in  Java  230,000  acres,  in  Sumatra  160,000 
acres,  in  Burma  40,000  acres,  in  Borneo  25,000  acres,  in  East 
Africa  60,000  acres,  in  Kamerun  17,000  acres,  and  smaller 
areas  in  plantations  in  various  other  tropical  countries.  It  is 
estimated  that  the  total  area  of  plantation  rubber  by  the  close 
of  1916  will  represent  1,500,000  acres,  and  the  estimated  out- 
put of  plantation  rubber  in  1920  will  be  200,000  tons.  Ac- 
cording to  the  latest  available  statistics,  the  annual  production 
of  wild  rubber  from  Brazil  is  45,000  tons,  from  Africa  21,000 
tons,  from  Mexico  8,000  tons,  from  Bolivia  3,000  tons,  and 
from  Peru  2,000  tons. 

The  enthusiastic  stampede  which  characterized  the  develop- 
ment of  the  rubber  industry  during  the  past  twenty  years  led 
to  the  organization  of  many  doubtful  rubber  companies,  the 
perpetration  of  a  great  many  hoaxes  in  the  sale  of  rubber 
plantations,  and  the  sale  of  much  worthless  rubber  stock.  Not- 
withstanding these  unfortunate  experiences,  it  is  the  best  judg- 
ment of  men  most  familiar  with  the  rubber  industry  that 
when  rubber  finally  reaches  the  stable  price  of  50  to  60  cents 
per  pound,  or  perhaps  somewhat  lower,  its  use  will  doubtless 
be  greatly  extended  beyond  even  its  present  development,  and 


204  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

reasonable  profits  will  be  insured  to  plantations  which  are 
managed  in  a  businesslike  way.  The  growth  of  the  plantation 
rubber  business  is  indicated  by  the  simple  fact  that  the  export 
of  rubber  from  Ceylon  and  the  Federated  Malay  States  in 
1903  was  19  tons  and  in  1913  was  48,000  tons.  Taking  plan- 
tation rubber  as  a  whole,  95  per  cent,  of  it  is  Hevea.  The 
importation  of  rubber  into  the  United  States  in  1914  was 
143,000,000  pounds.  This  indicates  the  enormous  extent  to 
which  the  demand  now  comes  for  the  manufacture  of  rubber 
tires.  The  price  of  rubber  has  fluctuated  quite  widely  since 
rubber  became  a  commercial  industry.  The  lowest  London 
price  for  Para  rubber  was  37  cents  in  1865  and  the  highest 
price  was  $3.12  in  1910.  The  present  prices  are  greatly  in- 
fluenced by  the  European  War,  but  it  has  been  estimated  that 
many  of  the  plantations  now  in  operation  are  prepared  to 
produce  rubber  at  a  profit  for  25  or  30  cents  per  pound. 

The  United  States  occupies  a  very  unimportant  position  in 
rubber  production.  Considerable  plantings  of  Ceara,  Hevea, 
and  Castilloa  rubber  have  been  made  in  the  Philippines,  Porto 
Rico,  and  Hawaii,  but  practically  no  rubber  is  now  coming 
upon  the  market  from  these  plantations.  In  the  Philippines 
most  of  the  trees  are  still  too  young.  In  Hawaii  there  are 
about  1,500  acres  of  Ceara  rubber  old  enough  for  tapping. 
In  fact,  the  trees  have  been  tapped  with  success  for  3  or  4 
years.  It  has  been  found,  however,  that  rubber  cannot  be  pro- 
duced at  a  profit  on  the  Hawaiian  rubber  plantations  when  the 
market  price  of  rubber  is  less  than  55  cents  a  pound.  Tapping 
has  therefore  been  temporarily  suspended  until  the  price  of 
rubber  improves.  An  attempt  was  made  on  one  of  the  Ha- 
waiian islands  to  grow  guayule  but  without  success.  The 
Hevea  rubber  does  not  thrive  well  in  Hawaii  except  in  pro- 
tected places  not  exposed  to  the  trade  winds.  All  kinds  of 
rubber  trees  which  have  been  tried  in  Porto  Rico  do  well  and 
seem  to  give  promise  of  success.  Thus  far,  however,  there  is 
no  commercial  rubber  industry  in  Porto  Rico.  fl'i 


RUBBERS  AND  GUMS  205 

GUTTA-PERCHA 

Gutta-percha  is  a  product  closely  resembling  true  rubber 
in  chemical  composition  but  differing  from  it  decidedly  in 
physical  properties.  It  is  the  product  of  a  tree  known  as 
Palaquium  gutta  and  of  several  other  species  of  more  or  less 
related  trees.  These  trees  are  native  of  Malaya,  Cochin  China, 
Central  America,  South  America,  Australia,  and  the  Philip- 
pines. They  are  large  trees  of  the  family  Sapotaceae,  with 
shiny  leathery  leaves,  somewhat  resembling  those  of  certain 
species  of  rubber  trees.  In  harvesting  the  gutta-percha  the 
trees  are  cut  down,  after  which  the  bark  is  removed  and  the 
latex  collected  by  mechanical  and  chemical  methods,  or  the 
trees  are  tapped  by  ringing  or  other  kinds  of  incisions.  The 
leaves  also  yield  about  10  per  cent,  of  a  low  grade  of  gutta- 
percha  which  may  be  extracted  with  toluene.  The  gutta- 
percha  is  collected  in  blocks  or  irregular  lumps  weighing  5 
to  10  pounds.  This  mass  is  then  put  through  a  mangier, 
washed,  and  rolled  into  sheets.  Gutta-percha  is  readily  soluble 
in  chloroform.  It  melts  at  moderate  temperatures  and  is  in- 
elastic, differing  in  that  respect  from  rubber.  It  is  used  in 
surgical  bandages,  wound  coverings,  like  collodion,  and  golf 
balls,  but  chiefly  for  outside  insulation  of  submarine  cables. 
For  this  purpose  it  has  long  been  used  in  large  quantities. 
Gutta-percha  has  furnished  a  basis  for  the  insulation  of  250,- 
ooo  miles  of  submarine  cables.  At  present  rubber  is  displacing 
gutta-percha  for  most  purposes,  but  the  United  States  imported 
1,900,000  pounds  in  1914.  Certain  species  of  Sapota,  Calo- 
tropis,  and  Euphorbia  also  yield  gutta-percha.  Gutta-percha 
is  pliable  at  ordinary  temperatures.  It  yields  to  pressure  at 
122°  F.,  may  be  kneaded  at  194°  F.,  and  melts  at  248°  F.  It 
is  decidedly  resistant  to  hydrofluoric  acid  and  may  therefore 
be  used  in  vats  for  etching  glass. 


206  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

BALATA 

Balata  is  another  product  resembling  rubber  but  differing 
in  its  physical  properties  from  both  rubber  and  gutta-percha. 
It  is  the  product  of  Minusops  balata  and  certain  other  species 
of  trees  which  occur  mostly  in  Dutch  Guiana,  Venezuela,  and 
Brazil.  M.  balata  is  a  large  tree,  sometimes  with  a  diameter 
of  6  feet.  In  Venezuela  the  trees  were  cut  down  and  the  latex 
was  removed  by  applying  presses  to  the  bark.  In  this  way  as 
much  as  100  pounds  of  balata  can  be  obtained  from  a  single 
tree.  In  Surinam  the  trees  are  tapped  by  vertical  series  of 
jabs  which  are  made  in  the  tree  to  a  height  of  20  feet  or  more. 
By  this  method  one  laborer  can  collect  4  to  10  gallons  of  latex 
per  day.  From  one  gallon  of  latex  about  4  pounds  of  balata 
are  obtained.  Balata  does  not  readily  oxidize  when  exposed 
to  the  air,  contrasting  sharply  in  this  respect  with  gutta-percha 
and  also  to  a  less  extent  with  rubber.  It  is  not  ductile  and 
has,  therefore,  been  largely  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
machine  beltings. 

JELUTONG 

Jelutong  is  a  rubber-like  product  obtained  from  the  latex  of 
a  tree  known  as  Dyera  costulata,  native  to  Malaya,  Sarawak, 
Borneo,  and  Sumatra.  The  tree  reaches  a  huge  size,  often 
measuring  4  to  6  feet  in  diameter.  The  jelutong  trees  are 
tapped  mostly  by  long  V-cuts.  It  has  been  found  that  these 
trees  show  the  wound  response  which  is  also  characteristic  of 
Hevea  rubber  trees.  Jelutong  trees  are  tapped  about  40  times 
a  year  and  yield  an  average  of  about  60  pounds  of  jelutong 
per  tree.  The  latex  is  coagulated  by  the  natives  by  various 
methods,  sometimes  by  stirring  with  kerosene  or  powdered 
gypsum.  The  latex  contains  60  to  70  per  cent,  of  total  solids 
and  crude  jelutong  contains  about  10  per  cent,  of  rubber. 
Jelutong  comes  on  the  market  in  the  form  of  white  blocks 
weighing  from  30  to  50  pounds.  When  the  high  percentage  of 


RUBBERS  AND  GUMS  207 

resin  is  removed  from  the  crude  product  the  remaining  rubber 
is  of  high  grade.  Jelutong  is  shipped  in  rather  large  quantities 
from  Singapore  and  is  used  extensively  in  Europe  and  America 
in  rubber  manufacture. 

CHICLE 

The  sapota  tree  (Acras  sapota)  of  Mexico  and  British 
Honduras  is  a  stately  tree  which  attains  a  height  of  20  to  30 
feet,  bears  leathery  shiny  leaves,  and  produces  a  latex  in  the 
fruit,  leaves,  and  bark,  but  chiefly  in  the  bark.  From  the  latex 
of  the  tree  a  gum  is  obtained,  known  as  chicle,  which  is  used 
as  the  basis  of  chewing  gum.  The  wood  of  the  sapota  tree  is 
dark  purplish-red  and  exceedingly  hard  and  heavy  when  cured. 
It  is  susceptible  of  a  high  polish  and  is  very  serviceable  for 
cabinet  purposes.  The  bark  of  the  tree  contains  sufficient  tan- 
nin to  be  utilized  as  a  source  of  that  product. 

The  chicle  industry  is  most  highly  developed  in  Mexico,  par- 
ticularly between  Tuxpan  and  the  southern  part  of  Yucatan. 
The  quality  of  the  gum  obtained  in  Yucatan  is  inferior  to  that 
which  comes  from  Tuxpan.  In  this  center  of  chicle  production 
trees  are  known  to  have  been  tapped  for  a  period  of  25  years. 
After  such  a  long  period  of  tapping,  however,  the  latex  yields 
only  about  25  per  cent,  of  gum.  The  tapping  season  begins  in 
early  September  and  the  flow  of  latex  is  greatly  stimulated  by 
the  occurrence  of  heavy  rains.  Trees  which  have  not  previ- 
ously been  tapped  yield  15  to  25  pounds  of  latex.  The  tapping 
process  is  ordinarily  accomplished  by  V-shaped  incisions  so 
arranged  as  to  allow  the  latex  to  flow  downward  in  a  continu- 
ous stream.  The  latex  is  caught  at  the  base  of  the  trunk  in 
leaves  or  other  simple  containers.  The  latex  from  the  sapota 
tree  is  extremely  sticky.  It  is  coagulated  commonly  by  boiling, 
after  which  the  gum  is  kneaded  to  press  out  more  of  the  wa- 
ter. If  carefully  prepared,  the  gum  is  quite  white,  but  it 
usually  has  a  dirty,  dark  gray  color. 

The  latex  from  the  chicle  tree  will  coagulate  spontaneously, 


208  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 


this  method  is  often  employed  in  the  place  of  boiling.  The 
gum  is  marketed  in  blocks  weighing  20  to  30  pounds.  Chicle 
was  formerly  used  like  gutta-percha  in  electric  insulation.  It 
is  now  used,  however,  entirely  for  chewing  gum  and  exclu- 
sively in  the  United  States.  This  country  imported  5,896,000 
pounds  of  chicle  in  1914.  The  exportation  of  chicle  from 
Mexico  ranges  from  1,800  to  2,200  tons  annually. 

There  are  many  other  trees  which  yield  a  product  similar 
to  chicle.  For  example,  Euphorbia  lor  i  folia,  a  tree  native  to 
Hawaii,  yields  a  latex  containing  42  per  cent,  of  total  solids. 
The  solid  material  contains  55.9  per  cent,  resin,  1.5  per  cent. 
gum,  15.8  per  cent,  caoutchouc,  12.6  per  cent,  protein,  and 
nearly  4  per  cent,  of  ash.  A  laborer  can  collect  40  pounds  of 
latex  per  day.  The  latex  of  this  tree  is  best  coagulated  by 
heat  80°  to  90°  C. 

CAMPHOR 

Camphor  is  a  product  of  a  tree  known  as  Cinnamomum  cam- 
phora,  closely  related  to  the  cinnamon  tree  and  a  native  of  For- 
mosa, Japan,  and  China.  The  tree  has  been  introduced  into 
Ceylon,  India,  East  Africa,  Hawaii,  California,  Florida,  and 
quite  generally  throughout  the  Tropics  and  subtropics.  The 
camphor  tree  is  quite  hardy  and  will  endure  climates  where 
the  winter  temperatures  fall  as  low  as  15°  F.  Before  the  true 
camphor  came  into  prominent  commercial  use,  closely  related 
products  were  obtained  from  other  trees.  Dryobalanops  aro- 
matica,  a  tree  native  of  Borneo,  Sumatra,  and  Malaya,  was 
used  perhaps  before  the  true  camphor  tree,  and  the  product 
obtained  from  it  was  known  as  Borneo  camphor.  Blumea  bal- 
samifera,  a  native  tree  of  Burma,  yields  what  has  been  known 
as  Ngai  camphor. 

The  true  commercial  camphor  tree  reaches  a  height  of  100 
feet,  a  diameter  of  2  or  3  feet,  and  is  densely  branched.  The 
leaves  are  dark  green,  shiny,  and  of  leathery  texture.  Since 
1899,  the  Japanese  Government  has  tried  to  maintain  a  mo- 


RUBBERS  AND  GUMS  209 

nopoly  on  camphor.  Such  monopoly  was  thought  to  be  possible 
in  view  of  the  great  extent  of  camphor  forests  in  Formosa.  It 
was  estimated  that  the  Japanese  Camphor  Bureau  could  put 
on  the  market  about  6,500,000  pounds  of  crude  camphor  an- 
nually. About  75  per  cent,  of  the  world's  supply  of  camphor 
comes  from  Formosa,  most  of  the  remainder  being  produced 
in  Japan  and  China.  Since  the  year  1*900  the  Japanese  Gov- 
ernment has  planted  about  1,000,000  camphor  trees  annually. 
The  production  of  camphor  in  China  has  increased  greatly  in 
recent  years  and  now  amounts  to  about  1,600,000  pounds  an- 
nually. 

In  Formosa,  camphor  is  obtained  from  trees  50  years  of  age 
or  over.  The  Camphor  Bureau  of  the  Japanese  Government 
at  one  time  prohibited  the  cutting  of  trees  younger  than  50 
years.  The  percentage  of  camphor  in  the  wood  has  been  found 
to  increase  in  old  trees. 

The  world's  supply  of  camphor  is  now  about  5,200  tons 
annually,  which,  as  already  indicated,  comes  chiefly  from  For- 
mosa. The  United  States  imports  about  2,000  tons  of  camphor 
annually.  A  synthetic  camphor  has  been  made  from  turpen- 
tine by  various  methods,  but  is  inferior  to  the  natural  article 
and  cannot  compete  with  the  latter  so  long  as  the  price  of 
natural  camphor  is  not  high.  In  fact,  the  so-called  synthetic 
camphor  is  not  strictly  camphor,  but  is  a  product  which  may 
be  used  as  a  cheap  substitute  for  camphor.  As  a  result  of  the 
increasing  demand  for  camphor,  about  1,000  acres  were  planted 
of  this  crop  in  Ceylon  in  1908  and  further  plantings  have  since 
been  made  in  that  country.  The  camphor  tree  is  propagated 
from  seed  in  nurseries.  The  seedlings  are  planted  in  the 
field  at  various  distances,  depending  on  the  method  of  manu- 
facture which  is  contemplated.  In  the  southern  United  States, 
particularly  in  Florida,  where  leaves  and  small  twigs  of  young 
shoots  are  used  in  the  production  of  camphor,  the  seedlings 
are  planted  6  to  10  feet  apart  both  ways. 

In  the  experiments  which  have  been  carried  on  with  cam- 


210  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

phor  in  the  United  States  it  has  already  been  shown  that  this 
is  a  promising  crop,  particularly  for  Florida.  Seedling  cam- 
phor trees  were  brought  to  Florida  about  1870  and  large  plant- 
ings have  been  made  from  the  seed  produced  by  these  orig- 
inal trees  and  from  subsequent  importations  of  seed.  The 
camphor  industry  is  growing  rapidly  in  Florida,  and  it  ap- 
pears that  the  area  devoted  to  camphor  will  soon  exceed  8,000 
acres.  The  center  of  camphor  production  in  Florida  is  Sat- 
suma,  where  it  was  reported  that  the  Du  Pont  Powder  Com- 
pany purchased  camphor  plantations  in  January,  1916,  for  the 
sum  of  $6,500,000.  Camphor  is  also  grown,  although  less  ex- 
tensively, in  the  states  of  Georgia,  Louisiana,  Texas,  and  Cali- 
fornia. 

Camphor  is  a  volatile  oil  and  is  extracted  by  steaming  the 
wood  and  leaves  which  have  previously  been  ground  to  a  fine 
powder.  A  higher  percentage  of  camphor  is  obtained  from 
leaves  and  young  shoots  than  from  old  wood.  On  this  ac- 
count clippings  from  young  camphor  seedlings  are  made  in 
Florida  for  use  in  extracting  camphor.  It  has  been  found  that 
the  camphor  trees  can  be  kept  trimmed  back  to  a  convenient 
height  for  working.  The  camphor  tree  was  long  used  in  the 
South  for  hedges,  and  these  hedges  are  now  becoming  of  con- 
siderable value  as  sources  of  camphor.  If  the  trees  are  planted 
in  rows  15  feet  apart  and  6  feet  apart  in  the  row,  it  has  been 
found  that  within  6  years  from  seed  the  trees  will  form  a  solid 
hedge,  which  can  be  trimmed  at  intervals  to  secure  material 
for  the  extraction  of  camphor.  Clippings  can  be  cut  from 
trees  at  the  age  of  3  or  4  years,  and  thereafter  at  least  3  or  4 
times  a  year.  The  twigs  yield  i  to  il/2  per  cent,  of  camphor 
by  weight,  and  it  has  been  found  that  the  yield  of  camphor  per 
acre  ranges  from  120  to  200  pounds. 

In  obtaining  camphor  from  the  leaves  and  twigs  or  wood, 
steam  distillation  is  carried  on  for  about  3  hours.  During 
this  time  the  camphor  is  condensed  on  the  walls  of  the  distilla- 
tion apparatus  as  a  result  of  cooling  from  the  surrounding 


RUBBERS  AND  GUMS  211 

water.    In  Ceylon  the  cost  of  producing  camphor  is  about  27 
cents  a  pound. 

The  bulk  of  the  world's  camphor  is  used  in  the  manufacture 
of  celluloid  and  in  connection  with  nitro-cellulose  compounds. 
In  addition  to  this  chief  use  of  camphor,  it  is  also  employed 
to  a  less  extent  in  the  preparation  of  various  medicines. 


OTHER  GUMS  AND  RESINS 

All  of  the  products  which  have  been  discussed  in  this  chap- 
ter would  be  generally  included  under  the  head  of  gums  and 
resins.  Most  of  them,  however,  are  of  so  great  importance  for 
specific  uses  that  it  was  thought  best  to  discuss  them  separately. 
A  few  brief  notes  seemed  desirable  in  connection  with  certain 
other  gums  and  resins  which  have  some  importance  in  the 
world's  commerce.  The  chemical  composition  of  gums  and 
resins  is  not  well  understood.  Ordinarily,  gums  are  defined 
as  amorphous  CHO  compounds  which  dissolve  in  water  or 
take  up  enough  water  to  become  mucilaginous  and  are  insolu- 
ble in  alcohol.  Resins,  on  the  other  hand,  are  CHO  com- 
pounds which  are  insoluble  in  water,  but  soluble  in  alcohol, 
ether,  and  volatile  oils.  Balsams  are  a  group  of  resins  or 
oleoresins  with  a  fragrant  aroma  or  agreeable  flavor.  A  well 
known  example  of  this  group  of  products  is  Canada  balsam. 

Copal  resin  is  obtained  either  directly  from  living  trees  or 
as  a  semi-fossil  product.  It  occurs  in  the  East  Indies,  South 
America,  New  Zealand,  Africa,  Sumatra,  Java,  Philippines, 
and  Australia.  Macassar,  or  Singapore  copal,  is  obtained  from 
Agathls  loranthifolia.  South  American  copal  comes  from  liv- 
ing trees  of  Hymen&a  courbaril.  Kauri  copal  is  a  fossil  resin 
from  the  Kauri  pine  (Dammara  australis) .  The  dammar  resin 
of  the  Federated  Malay  States  comes  chiefly  from  species  of 
Balanocarpus.  The  copal  resins  are  widely  used  in  varnishes. 

Gum  arabic  is  a  gummy  exudation  which  occurs  on  the 
trunks  of  Acacia  Senegal  and  other  species  of  wattle  trees, 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

This  gum  is  also  known  as  Acacia,  Turkey,  Senegal,  India, 
and  Barbary  gum.  In  obtaining  gum  arabic  strips  of  bark  are 
removed  from  the  tree  and  the  gum  is  collected  from  the 
wounds  after  about  60  days.  Gum  arabic  is  used  extensively  in 
pharmacies  in  preparing  pills  and  for  holding  in  suspension 
substances  which  are  insoluble  in  water. 

Gum  tragacanth  is  a  gummy  exudation  of  Astragalus  gurn- 
mifer  and  other  species  of  related  plants  from  Syria,  Armenia, 
Kurdistan,  and  Persia.  In  harvesting  this  gum  the  plants 
are  incised  and  the  gums  collected  in  white  or  yellow  sheets. 
Gum  tragacanth  is  used  for  the  same  purpose  as  gum  arabic, 
but  is  less  soluble. 

Mastic  resin  is  obtained  from  a  small  tree  (Pistacia  lenticus) 
of  the  Mediterranean  region.  The  gum  is  obtained  from  trans- 
verse incisions  in  bark  and  is  obtained  about  3  weeks  after 
tapping.  The  trees  are  tapped  3  or  4  times  during  the  season 
from  June  to  September.  The  annual  yield  per  tree  is  8  to  10 
pounds.  The  resin  occurs  in  masses  of  a  pale  yellow  color. 
It  is  brittle  and  melts  at  108°  C.  Mastic  was  once  much  used 
in  stomach  debilities  and  for  fine  varnishes,  but  is  being  re- 
placed by  other  resins. 

Guaiacum  resin  is  obtained  from  West  Indian  trees  (G.  ofli- 
cinale  and  G.  sanctum).  The  resin  occurs  either  as  a  natural 
exudation  or  is  obtained  by  cutting  the  tree  into  sections  and 
boring  holes  in  the  wood  or  by  building  fires  under  each  end 
of  the  log  and  driving  the  resin  out  by  heat.  Guaiacum  is 
widely  used  as  a  chemical  indicator,  being  a  very  sensitive  re- 
agent for  oxidizing  substances.  It  is  also  used  in  medicine 
as  a  stimulant  and  alterative. 

Tacamahaca  resin  is  obtained  from  a  Venezuelan  tree  (Bur- 
sera  tomentosa).  The  resin  contains  considerable  volatile  oil. 
In  the  East  Indies  another  kind  of  Tacamahaca  resin  is  ob- 
tained from  Calophyllum  inophyllum.  The  resin  is  perhaps 
very  similar  to  those  of  turpentine  and  is  used  in  making  plas- 
ters and  ointments. 


RUBBERS  AND  GUMS  213 

Candellia  wax  is  obtained  from  a  small  Mexican  spurge 
(Euphorbia  antisyphilitica) .  A  thin  coat  of  wax  occurs  upon 
the  leaves  and  stems  of  this  plant.  The  plant  is  propagated  by 
cuttings.  It  has  been  found  that  wax  is  produced  only  in  dry 
districts.  The  wax  is  obtained  by  boiling  the  stems  and  skim- 
ming the  wax  on  the  surface  of  the  water.  Candellia  wax  is 
used  in  floor  waxes,  varnishes,  shoe  polish,  phonograph  rec- 
ords, and  for  various  other  purposes. 

Carnauba  wax  is  obtained  from  a  large  handsome  Brazilian 
palm  (Copernicia  cerifera).  The  thin  layer  of  wax  is  formed 
on  the  under  side  of  the  large  leaves  of  this  palm.  The  wax  is 
scraped  off  and  melted  or  the  leaves  are  cut  into  pieces,  boiled, 
and  the  wax  skimmed  from  the  surface  of  the  water.  Each 
tree  produces  6  or  8  immense  leaves  annually.  It  has  been 
found  that  on  an  average  I  pound  of  wax  has  been  obtained 
from  each  100  pounds  of  leaves.  Brazil  exports  2,000  tons  of 
Carnauba  wax  annually.  The  wax  is  used  chiefly  in  fine  can- 
dles, high-grade  shoe  polish,  and  phonograph  records. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
DRUGS 

No  attempt  is  made  in  the  present  discussion  to  consider 
other  than  a  few  of  the  important  commercial  drug  plants 
which  grow  primarily  or  exclusively  in  tropical  countries. 
There  are  thousands  of  plants  which  have  been  used  for  the 
extraction  of  drugs.  In  fact,  few  plants  have  escaped  the 
suspicion  of  possessing  a  medicinal  property  of  one  sort  or 
another.  In  looking  over  the  long  list  of  drug  plants  one  is 
reminded  of  the  fact  that  a  large  percentage  of  them  grow  in 
northern  climates.  Some  of  the  drug  materials  which  it  might 
be  expected  would  be  discussed  in  this  chapter  are  referred  to 
elsewhere.  For  example?  castor  oil  and  star  anise  oil  are 
treated  under  oils. 

CINCHONA 

Cinchona  trees,  from  which  are  obtained  the  alkaloid  quinin 
and  other  related  alkaloids,  are  native  to  South  America,  where 
they  grow  in  abundance  from  a  latitude  of  10°  N.  of  the 
Equator  to  about  20°  S.  The  chief  species  which  have  been 
used  as  a  commercial  source  of  quinin  are  Cinchona  ledgeriana, 
which  yields  the  so-called  yellow  bark;  C.  succirubra,  from 
which  red  quinin  or  red  bark  is  obtained;  C.  officinalis,  from 
which  brown  bark  or  pale  bark  is  obtained ;  and  C.  calisaya,  the 
source  of  calisaya  bark.  Until  about  1890  practically  all  the 
cinchona  bark  of  commerce  was  obtained  from  wild  cinchona 
trees.  Since  that  date  the  trees  have  been  cultivated  quite 
extensively,  particularly  in  Java,  Bengal,  Ceylon,  and  Mada- 
gascar. Cinchona  occurs  as  a  shrub  or  tree  reaching  a  height 

214 


DRUGS  215 

of  20  to  40  feet  with  evergreen  opposite  entire  leaves,  and  tubu- 
lar rose-colored  or  yellow  flowers  in  racemes.  The  tree  en- 
dures temperatures  ranging  from  the  hottest  which  occur  in 
the  Tropics  to  about  35°  F.  Cinchona  apparently  prefers  a 
humid  climate  with  a  rainfall  of  50  to  60  inches. 

In  Java  it  is  chiefly  C.  ledgeriana  which  is  cultivated,  while 
in  Ceylon  attention  has  been  given  mostly  to  C.  succirubra.  In 
recent  years,  however,  the  cultivation  of  cinchona  in  Ceylon 
has  greatly  diminished.  Cinchona  trees  are  propagated  mostly 
from  seed.  The  seed  is  planted  in  nurseries  from  which  young 
seedlings  are  taken  after  reaching  a  height  of  about  I  foot  and 
planted  in  the  field  at  a  distance  of  4  feet  apart.  Later,  during 
the  growth  of  the  trees,  they  are  thinned  to  a  distance  of  12 
by  12  feet.  The  tree  may  also  be  easily  propagated  by  budding 
or  grafting. 

As  already  indicated,  the  chief  source  of  quinin  at  present  is 
found  in  the  two  species  C.  ledgeriana  and  C.  succirubra,  par- 
ticularly the  former.  It  has  been  found  that  the  percentage 
of  quinin  in  the  bark  increases  gradually  with  age  up  to  about 
4  years.  In  fact,  as  a  general  rule,  it  is  considered  that  the 
maximum  percentage  of  quinin  is  found  in  bark  from  trees 
6  to  9  years  old.  The  yield  of  bark  from  cinchona  trees  varies 
greatly.  In  trees  9  to  10  years  old  an  average  yield  of  dried 
bark  is  about  22  pounds  per  tree,  of  which  about  15  pounds 
is  derived  from  the  trunk  and  smaller  quantities  from  the 
branches  and  roots.  The  percentage  of  alkaloids  in  the  bark 
also  varies  greatly  according  to  species  and  condition.  In 
wild  trees  the  average  quantity  of  alkaloids  in  the  bark  is 
about  6  to  7  per  cent.,  of  which  one-half  to  two-thirds  is  quinin, 
at  least  in  the  case  of  C.  calisaya,  but  cinchonidine  is  the  pre- 
dominating alkaloid  in  C.  succirubra.  There  are  various  other 
alkaloids  in  the  bark  of  the  cinchona  trees. 

The  United  States  imports  about  3,600,000  pounds  of  cin- 
chona bark  annually.  This  bark  is  obtained,  as  already  indi- 
cated, from  the  trunk  and  roots,  but  the  root  bark  is  considered 


216  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

superior  as  a  source  of  quinin.  The  bark  is  harvested  by  prun- 
ing and  allowing  the  regrowth  of  suckers  or  by  shaving  the 
bark  in  strips,  removing  only  a  portion  at  one  time  and  cover- 
ing the  shaved  strips.  The  renewed  bark  which  grows  from 
these  peeled  strips  is  very  rich  in  alkaloids. 

The  value  of  quinin  for  the  treatment  of  malaria  was  dis- 
covered in  1638,  and  following  upon  this  discovery  the  demand 
for  bark  from  wild  trees  increased  rapidly.  To  show  the  enor- 
mous interest  in  the  cultivation  of  quinin  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  in  1887  Ceylon  produced  16,000,000  pounds  of  bark,  but 
this  country  was  unable  to  compete  with  Java  under  the  low 
prices  of  quinin  and  the  production  in  Ceylon  has  therefore 
fallen  to  about  110,000  pounds  per  year.  Java  is  now  one  of 
the  chief  quinin-producing  countries.  On  the  cinchona  plan- 
tations of  Java  it  has  been  found  that  2  pounds  of  bark  per 
tree  per  year,  or  about  600  pounds  of  dried  bark  per  acre,  is 
a  good  average  yield.  Moreover,  the  cinchona  planters  of  Java 
have  increased  the  percentage  of  alkaloid  in  the  bark  by  a  long 
series  of  selections  until  they  have  obtained  a  strain  of  cin- 
chona trees  of  which  the  bark  contains  15  per  cent,  of  alkaloids.' 

Cinchona  trees  have  been  found  to  grow  satisfactorily  in 
the  Philippines,  Hawaii,  and  Porto  Rico,  but  no  commercial 
production  of  this  material  has  been  developed  within  the  terri- 
tory of  the  United  States. 

COCAINE 

Cocaine  is  an  alkaloid  which  is  derived  from  the  leaves  of 
a  shrub  Erythroxylon  coca,  native  to  Peru  and  Bolivia.  These 
countries  are  still  the  chief  source  of  supply.  The  shrub  at- 
tains a  height  of  6  to  8  feet  and  bears  alternate,  shiny,  entire- 
margined  leaves  and  small  white  flowers.  The  shrub  is  much 
branched  and  the  bark  of  the  branches  and  trunks  is  light  gray 
in  color.  This  shrub  thrives  best  in  the  humid  valleys  of  the 
Andes.  It  is  cultivated  to  some  extent  in  Bolivia,  Guiana,  and 
western  Brazil,  but  for  the  most  part  the  leaves  are  obtained 


DRUGS  217 

from  wild  plants.  The  cocaine  shrub  is  propagated  from 
seeds.  The  young  seedling  trees,  taken  directly  from  the  nurs- 
ery, are  planted  about  4  by  4  feet.  The  first  picking  of  leaves 
is  obtained  at  the  age  of  2.^/2  years.  Thereafter  the  leaves  may 
be  picked  several  times  annually.  Only  mature  leaves  are  used 
as  a  source  of  cocaine.  After  picking,  the  leaves  are  quickly 
dried  and  packed  in  moisture  and  air-proof  containers  for 
shipment.  On  an  average,  100  pounds  of  leaves  will  yield  I 
pound  of  cocaine.  The  Bolivian  cocaine  leaves  appear  to  yield 
the  highest  percentage  of  the  drug  cocaine.  The  leaves  of  this 
shrub  also  contain  a  number  of  other  alkaloids  beside  cocaine. 
In  the  countries  where  this  plant  grows  the  natives  frequently 
acquire  the  habit  of  chewing  the  leaves  either  alone  or  mixed 
with  lime  and  tobacco.  It  is  commonly  believed  that  this  habit 
has  the  effect  of  increasing  the  resistance  of  the  laborer  to 
fatigue,  to  the  loss  of  sleep,  and  to  the  lack  of  food.  The  co- 
caine bush  grows  vigorously  in  Hawaii  and  in  the  Philippines, 
but  no  effort  has  been  made  to  develop  an  industry  in  the 
growth  of  cocaine,  largely  for  the  reason  that  much  hesitation 
has  been  felt  toward  exposing  American  laborers  more  widely 
than  necessary  to  the  cocaine  habit. 


OPIUM 

The  opium  poppy  (Papaper  somniferum)  is  a  native  of 
India  and  Asia  Minor,  but  has  also  been  cultivated  extensively 
in  China,  Queensland,  Persia,  Turkey,  and  various  other  coun- 
tries. It  is  an  annual  poppy  and  occurs  under  2  or  3  varietal 
forms.  The  best  variety  for  medicinal  use  is  cultivated  in 
Asia  Minor.  The  seed  is  sown  in  drills  2  feet  apart  and  about 
10  inches  in  the  drill.  The  plant  blossoms  3  months  after 
seeding  and  within  10  days  thereafter  the  seed  capsules  are 
ready  to  be  tapped.  In  obtaining  crude  opium  the  green  cap- 
sule is  lanced  at  intervals  of  about  1-30  inch  by  a  set  of  parallel 
blades.  The  lancing  is  commonly  done  during  dry  weather  in 


218  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  evening.  The  latex  exudes,  coagulates  in  the  cuts,  and 
is  collected  the  next  morning.  The  collections  are  fashioned 
into  masses  or  blocks  weighing  up  to  20  pounds  and  in  this 
form  the  crude  opium  comes  upon  the  market.  Crude 
opium  is  a  black  tar-like  mass  with  a  characteristic  nauseating 
odor. 

The  petals  are  removed  at  the  time  of  flowering,  dried,  and 
used  as  a  covering  for  the  opium  blocks.  The  United  States 
imports  about  450,000  pounds  of  crude  opium  annually,  mostly 
from  Turkey  and  Persia.  Several  alkaloids  are  obtained  from 
crude  opium,  especially  morphine,  codeine,  narcotine,  and  papa- 
verine.  Crude  opium  ordinarily  yields  from  5  to  22  per  cent,  of 
morphine  and  from  0.5  to  2  per  cent,  of  codeine.  Opium  ob- 
tained from  Turkey  has  the  highest  percentage  of  morphine, 
while  Persian  opium  stands  next,  and  Indian  opium  has  the 
least  morphine. 

The  opium  industry  of  India  has  given  rise  to  a  vast  amount 
of  literature  on  politics,  anthropology,  and  medicine.  It  is 
quite  unnecessary  for  present  purposes  to  discuss  the  great 
extent  of  the  opium  habit  in  India  and  China  in  former  years 
or  the  political  complications  which  arose  during  the  devel- 
opment of  this  industry.  The  value  of  the  opium  export  from 
India  in  1906  was  over  $30,000,000  and  of  this  amount  opium 
to  the  value  of  more  than  $24,000,000  went  to  the  treaty  ports 
of  China. 

The  variety  of  poppy  grown  in  India  and  China  is  largely 
used  for  smoking  and  eating.  At  present,  however,  an  anti- 
opium  campaign  of  great  intensity  and  extent  is  being 
maintained  in  China  and  the  cultivation  of  the  poppy  has  in 
consequence  been  greatly  restricted. 

NUX  VOMICA 

Nux  vomica  is  the  trade  name  for  the  seed  of  Strychnos  nux- 
vomica,  a  small  tree  native  to  Ceylon  and  India.  This  tree  bears 


DRUGS  219 

elliptical,  thick,  leathery  leaves,  and  white  flowers  in  terminal 
cymes.  The  fruit  is  large,  round,  and  yellow  and  contains  flat 
gray  seeds  from  which  the  alkaloid  strychnin  is  obtained.  The 
seeds  yield  I  to  2.y2  per  cent,  of  strychnin  and  about  an  equal 
amount  of  the  alkaloid  brucine.  In  the  Philippines  it  has  been 
found  that  the  seeds  of  S.  ignatii  also  yield  strychnine. 


CUBEBS 

The  climbing  perennial  pepper  (Piper  cubeba),  native  of 
Borneo,  Java,  and  Sumatra,  bears  diecious  flowers  in  close 
spikes  and  berries  on  long  pedicels.  The  unripe  fruit  in  a 
dried  condition  is  the  official  cubeb.  The  plant  is  propagated 
by  cuttings  and  the  cultural  conditions  required  by  cubebs  are 
the  same  as  those  practiced  in  the  cultivation  of  pepper.  The 
world's  supply  of  cubebs  comes  largely  from  Java  and  Su- 
matra. The  material  has  frequently  been  adulterated  with  other 
species  of  Piper.  The  fruit  contains  from  10  to  15  per  cent,  of 
a  volatile  oil,  which  is  further  discussed  under  oils. 

IPECACUANHA 

The  ipecac  plant  (Psychotria  ipecacuanha)  is  a  small  per- 
ennial shrub,  native  of  Brazil,  with  creeping  stems  and  monili- 
form  or  variously  twisted  roots.  From  a  horizontal  root- 
stock  numerous  fibrous,  capillary,  or  thick  roots  issue.  These 
roots  contain  a  white  parenchyma  and  are  covered  with  a 
brown  epidermis.  The  leaves  are  smooth,  entire,  obovate,  and 
pointed.  The  plant  grows  generally  throughout  the  coast  of 
Brazil  and  inland  up  to  rather  high  altitudes.  Most  of  the 
ipecac  of  commerce  comes  from  the  province  of  Matto  Grosso. 
The  ipecac  plant  is  propagated  largely  by  seed  or  by  sprouts 
from  pieces  of  roots  which  may  be  left  in  the  soil.  When  the 
roots  attain  full  size  they  are  dug  and  dried  in  the  sun.  The 
dried  roots  are  the  official  ipecac.  Under  cultivation  the  yield 


220  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

of  dried  roots  is  about  600  pounds  per  acre.  Ipecac  roots  con- 
tain the  three  alkaloids  emetine,  cephaeline,  and  psychotrine, 
as  well  as  ipecacuanhic  acid.  The  alkaloid  emetine  is  expector- 
ant in  action,  while  cephaeline  is  decidedly  emetic.  England 
imports  about  50,0x30  pounds  of  ipecac  annually  and  the  United 
States  a  corresponding  quantity. 


INDIAN  HEMP 

Indian  hemp  (Cannabis  saliva)  is  a  common  fiber  plant 
widely  cultivated  in  various  countries  for  its  excellent  fiber. 
The  hemp  industry  was  formerly  far  more  important  in  Ken- 
tucky and  certain  other  Southern  States  than  at  present.  On 
account  of  the  fact  that  the  drug  obtained  from  this  plant 
has  been  chiefly  called  Indian  hemp  it  has  often  been  thought 
that  the  plant  from  which  the  drug  was  obtained  was  a  differ- 
ent species  than  the  fiber  plant.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however, 
hemp  has  been  cultivated  in  most  countries  for  its  fiber  and  in 
India,  especially  in  Bengal,  for  its  drug  product.  Hemp  has 
long  been  grown  for  this  purpose  in  various  parts  of  India 
and  Ceylon.  Recently,  however,  its  culture  for  this  purpose  in 
Ceylon  has  been  prohibited. 

When  the  plant  is  cultivated  for  the  production  of  the  drug 
the  male  flowers  are  removed  to  prevent  fertilization.  The 
drug  exudes  as  a  resin  on  all  parts  of  the  plant.  The  leaves 
and  tips  of  the  twigs  are  steeped  to  make  hashish.  For  this 
purpose  the  flowering  tops  are  compressed  into  masses  from 
which  the  best  grade  of  the  drug  is  obtained.  These  masses 
contain  15  to  20  per  cent,  of  the  resin  cannabin  from  which  an 
intoxicating  fixed  oil  and  also  an  essential  oil  are  obtained.  In- 
dian hemp  is  somewhat  used  in  the  United  States  in  veteri- 
nary medicine  as  a  powerful  sedative.  The  effects  produced 
by  the  use  of  hashish,  or  Indian  hemp,  are  stupefying  and 
hypnotic  in  nature.  The  natives  of  India  and  others  who  have 
become  addicted  to  the  use  of  hashish  describe  the  sensations 


DRUGS 

produced  by  this  drug  as  in  the  nature  of  agreeable  dreams 
followed  by  a  sort  of  voluptuous  stupor. 


COPAIBA 

Copaiba  balsam  is  obtained  from  the  tree  Copaifera  langs- 
dorfii,  native  of  Brazil,  attaining  a  height  of  50  to  60  feet  with 
pinnate,  leathery  leaves  and  apetalous  flowers.  Copaiba  is  an 
oleoresin  which  collects  in  cavities  in  the  trunk  of  the  tree. 
It  is  also  collected  by  artificial  tapping.  For  this  purpose 
grooves  or  cuts  in  other  shapes  are  made  in  the  trunk  in  the 
summer,  and  the  transparent,  colorless  liquid  is  allowed  to 
exude  and  dry  into  the  resin.  As  much  as  10  or  12  pounds  of 
this  resin  may  be  collected  from  a  single  tapping. 

PERU  BALSAM 

This  balsam  is  obtained  from  a  leguminous  tree  (Myroxylon 
pereirce),  native  of  South  America,  attaining  a  height  of  50 
feet,  with  alternate,  pinnate  leaves,  white  flowers,  and  one- 
seeded  pods.  The  balsam  naturally  collects  in  the  cavities  in 
the  bark  of  young  twigs,  where  it  is  obtained  by  bark  incisions 
or  exudes  from  bark  wounds  in  the  trunk.  A  very  fragrant 
form  of  the  balsam  is  also  obtained  from  the  fruit.  The  tree 
from  which  the  Peru  balsam  is  obtained  sometimes  reaches 
a  diameter  of  2  feet,  the  bark  is  thick,  the  sap  wood  almost 
pure  white,  and  the  bark  wood  reddish-brown.  The  wood  is 
extremely  hard  and  has  been  used  for  various  purposes  as 
timber. 

TOLU  BALSAM 

The  tolu  balsam  tree  (M.  toluiferum)  is  taller  than  the  tree 
from  which  Peru  balsam  is  obtained,  higher  branching,  but 
otherwise  like  the  Peru  balsam  tree.  Tolu  balsam  in  the  crude 
form  contains  75  per  cent,  resin,  which  also  yields  the  oil 
toluol  used  in  dyes  and  as  a  volatile  antiseptic. 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 


ALOES 

Aloes  is  a  plant  belonging  to  the  lily  family,  native  of  India 
and  Africa,  but  also  cultivated  in  the  West  Indies  for  the  drug 
and  elsewhere  as  an  ornamental.  Aloe  perryi  yields  Socotrine 
aloes,  has  white  spines  on  the  leaves,  and  spikes  of  orange-red 
flowers.  A.  vera,  yields  the  Barbados  aloes,  has  yellow  leaf 
spines,  and  yellow  flowers.  A.  spicata  of  Africa  yields  the 
drug  known  in  trade  as  Cape  aloes  and  has  white  flowers.  The 
plants  resemble  agaves,  or  century  plants  in  habit  of 
growth. 

The  drug  is  the  dried  juice  of  the  leaves  which  are  cut  into 
sections,  after  which  the  juice  is  allowed  to  run  out  and  is 
then  concentrated  by  boiling,  or  is  allowed  to  dry  sponta- 
neously. Socotrine  aloes  is  yellowish  and  brings  the  highest 
price.  Zanzibar  aloes  is  a  dark  brown  variety  of  Socotrine 
aloes.  Both  the  Curasao  and  Barbados  aloes  come  from  the 
Dutch  West  Indies.  In  fact,  the  main  supply  of  aloes  is  now 
obtained  from  Curagao.  Aloes  is  used  in  both  human  and  vet- 
erinary medicine  as  a  cathartic. 

CALABAR  BEAN 

This  is  a  woody  leguminous  climber  (Physostigma  veneno- 
sum),  native  of  Africa.  It  bears  violet-colored  flowers  and  a 
flattened,  pointed  pod  containing  2  or  3  seeds  or  beans.  Sev- 
eral alkaloids  are  obtained  from  the  ripe  beans,  but  the  most 
important  is  eserine  or  physostigmine.  Eserin  is  one  of  the 
most  powerful  alkaloids  and  has  the  specific  effect  of  greatly 
stimulating  the  involuntary  musculature  of  the  intestines  and 
blood  vessels.  The  Calabar  beans  yield  about  0.25  per  cent,  of 
eserine.  The  plant  attains  a  length  of  30  to  50  feet  and  be- 
comes almost  shrubby  at  the  base.  The  beans  are  for  the  most 
part  collected  from  wild  vines  since  thus  far  the  plant  has  not 
beea  extensively  cultivated. 


DRUGS 


CATECHU 

The  drug  catechu  is  obtained  from  Acacia  catechu  and  also 
from  Uncaria  gambir.  Both  of  these  trees  are  native  to  India 
and  the  East  Indies.  A.  catechu  is  a  leguminous  tree  closely 
related  to  the  black  wattle.  The  astringent  drug  catechu  is 
obtained  by  boiling  the  heartwood,  after  cutting  it  into  chips, 
until  the  extract  becomes  a  black  tar-like  mass.  In  this  form 
the  material  is  called  black  catechu  or  cutch.  Pale  catechu,  also 
called  gambier  or  terra  japonica,  is  obtained  by  boiling  the 
leaves  and  twigs  of  the  climbing  shrub  U.  gambir.  The  mate- 
rial is  used  chiefly  as  a  brown  dye  and  is  discussed  under  tans 
and  dyes. 

JALAP 

Jalap  is  a  perennial  twining  plant  (Exogonium  purga),  na- 
tive of  Mexico  and  also  cultivated  in  Jamaica,  India,  and  else- 
where. The  plant  bears  cordate  leaves,  purple  flowers,  and 
tuberous  roots.  The  roots  are  collected  in  the  fall  and  care- 
fully dried.  The  dried  roots  are  the  official  drug.  These  roots 
contain  8  to  10  per  cent,  of  the  resin,  consisting  largely  of  a 
glucosid  jalapurgin,  which  is  the  active  principle  of  the  plant. 
The  jalap  belongs  to  the  morning  glory  family  and  the  flowers 
closely  resemble  those  of  some  of  the  cultivated  varieties  of 
morning  glory.  The  roots  occur  as  irregular  globoid  masses 
connected  by  long  strands  of  underground  root-stocks. 

SARSAPARILLA 

There  are  several  kinds  of  sarsaparilla  which  have  been  used 
for  medicinal  purposes.  The  Mexican  sarsaparilla  has  been 
obtained  from  Snvilax  medica,  the  Jamaica  sarsaparilla  from 
S.  officinalis,  and  Para  sarsaparilla  from  S.  papyracea.  These 
plants  are  all  climbing  vines  provided  with  tendrils,  shiny 
leaves,  and  spiny  stems,  resembling  in  that  respect  our  common 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

green  brier  which  belongs  to  the  same  genus.  The  plants  are 
indigenous  to  the  tropical  regions  from  Mexico  to  Brazil.  The 
official  drug  sarsaparilla  is  the  dried  roots  of  the  plant.  These 
roots  contain  about  2,  per  cent,  of  saponin,  which  is  the  active 
principle.  The  American  sarsaparilla  is  Aralia  nudicaulis, 
an  entirely  different  and  unrelated  plant. 

SQUILL 

This  drug  is  obtained  from  a  plant  (Urginia  scilla),  native  of 
the  Mediterranean  country.  At  the  base  of  the  plant  an  onion- 
like  bulb  is  developed.  The  bulb  scales  are  cut  into  sections 
and  dried  in  the  sun  or  in  desiccators  by  the  use  of  artificial 
heat.  Squill  has  a  diuretic  and  purgative  action. 


SENNA 

The  drug  senna  is  obtained  from  small  shrubs  which  are 
native  to  Egypt  and  Arabia.  Alexandrian  senna  is  obtained 
from  Cassia  acutifolia  and  Indian  senna  from  C.  augustifolia. 
The  leaves  of  all  the  common  species  of  Cassia  are  pinnate  and 
the  flowers  yellow,  resembling  sweet  pea  flowers  in  shape. 
Senna  is  quite  extensively  cultivated  in  India.  The  dried  leaves 
and  the  pods  are  used  in  medicine  for  their  laxative  properties. 
Senna  is  also  cultivated  to  some  extent  in  the  Desert  of  Sahara. 

Purging  cassia  (C.  fistula),  a  native  tree  of  India,  is  widely 
cultivated  throughout  all  tropical  countries  as  an  ornamental. 
The  tree  reaches  a  height  of  20  to  40  feet,  has  a  smooth  gray 
bark,  and  handsome  racemes  of  large  pale  yellow  flowers.  The 
pods  are  ^  to  I  inch  in  diameter  and  often  attain  a  length  of 
2^2  feet.  The  supply  of  the  drug  from  this  plant  comes  chiefly 
from  Central  America,  South  America,  and  India.  The  tree 
begins  bearing  at  the  age  of  4  years.  The  pulp  in  the  pods 
is  a  thick,  brown,  molasses-like  substance  with  a  heavy  odor. 
It  contains  50  per  cent,  of  sugar  and  also  a  laxative  principle. 


m 


BETEL  NUT  PALM  IN  SIAM 


MANGROVE  JUNGLE  IN  FLORIDA 


DRUGS 

The  tree  grows  chiefly  throughout  Ethiopia  and  in  the  Levant. 
In  some  localities  this  tree  is  called  Golden  Shower  on  account 
of  its  profusion  of  beautiful  yellow  flowers. 


AWA 

The  Awa  plant,  or  Kava-Kava  (Piper  methysticum)  belongs 
to  the  same  genus  with  black  pepper  and  is  native  of  Hawaii 
and  other  Pacific  Islands.  It  is  a  small  shrub  2  or  3  .feet  high 
with  a  large  spongy  root.  The  roots  have  been  collected  by 
the  Polynesian  natives  since  prehistoric  times  for  use  in  prepar- 
ing an  intoxicating  beverage.  The  plant  has  not  been  generally 
cultivated,  but  for  the  most  part  the  roots  have  been  obtained 
from  wild  plants.  Recently  about  300  acres  were  planted  to 
Awa  in  Hawaii.  This  renewed  interest  in  Awa  is  due  to  the 
high  price  for  the  roots  which  followed  upon  a  reputed  dis- 
covery of  the  value  of  the  roots  for  medicinal  purposes.  A 
few  years  ago  the  price  of  the  roots  was  as  high  as  $700  a  ton. 
At  present,  however,  the  price  is  hardly  sufficient  to  warrant 
the  cultivation  of  the  plant.  It  is  propagated  by  stem  cuttings. 
The  roots  are  dug  at  the  age  of  3  or  4  years.  Since  the  plant 
has  been  used  for  medicinal  purposes  the  price  of  the  roots  has 
ranged  from  $50  to  $700  per  ton.  The  roots  contain  50  per 
cent,  of  starch  and  3  resins,  one  of  which  is  an  anesthetic  in- 
toxicant. The  physiological  effect  of  Awa  is  to  produce  a  com- 
plete muscular  paralysis. 

ARECA  NUT 

The  Areca  nut,  also  called  Betel  nut,  is  a  tall  handsome  palm 
(Areca  catechu),  40  to  100  feet  high,  and  native  of  Malaya 
and  Ceylon.  This  palm  bears  a  large  cluster  of  yellow  nuts 
about  the  size  of  a  hen's  egg.  The  kernel  of  the  nut  is  sliced, 
mixed  with  lime  and  the  leaves  of  betel  pepper,  and  chewed  by 
the  natives.  Among  the  natives  of  India  the  habit  of  chewing 
the  Betel  nut  is  almost  as  common  as  the  chewing  of  gum 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

among  Americans.  The  teeth  are  stained  black  as  a  result 
of  constantly  chewing  the  Betel  nut.  It  is  considered  to  be  a 
preventive  of  dysentery.  Areca  nut  is  also  used  as  a  vermi- 
fuge, especially  in  veterinary  medicine,  as  a  dentrifrice,  and 
also  extensively  in  tanning.  Ceylon  exports  about  8,000  tons 
annually. 

QUASSIA 

The  drug  and  insecticide  material  known  as  quassia  has  been 
derived  from  two  species  of  trees,  one  known  as  Quassia 
amara  in  Surinam,  and  the  other  known  as  Picrasma  excelsa  of 
Jamaica.  The  official  drug  quassia,  used  in  Europe,  is  derived 
from  the  first  species,  while  in  the  United  States  the  supply 
comes  from  the  second  species.  Surinam  quassia  is  a  shrub 
5  to  15  feet  high.  The  wood  of  the  root  and  trunk  is  used 
as  the  source  of  an  extract  which  is  employed  as  a  bitter  tonic 
for  medicinal  purposes.  This  tonic  is  considered  of  unusual 
value  on  account  of  the  fact  that  it  exercises  few  of  the  un- 
favorable effects  which  are  characteristic  of  tonics.  The  flow- 
ers of  the  Surinam  quassia  are  of  a  brilliant  red  color. 

The  Jamaica  quassia,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  handsome  tree 
attaining  a  height  of  100  feet  or  more  and  a  diameter  of  3  feet. 
This  tree  bears  greenish  flowers.  The  extract  obtained  from 
the  wood  of  this  tree  has  been  used  for  various  purposes.  It 
is  sometimes  substituted  for  hops  for  the  purpose  of  making 
beer  bitter.  The  wood  is  quite  commonly  used  for  cabinet 
purposes,  being  of  peculiar  value  on  account  of  its  immunity 
to  insect  attacks. 

Quassia  chips  have  been  extensively  used  as  a  source  of  a 
bitter  insecticide,  especially  employed  in  the  control  of  aphis 
or  plant  lice.  This  material  has  been  used  perhaps  most  widely 
in  controlling  the  hop  aphis  in  the  Western  States.  For  this 
purpose,  quassia  has  proved  to  be  exceedingly  effective  and 
cheap.  The  insecticide  quassia  is  commonly  prepared  by  boil- 
ing one  pound  of  quassia  chips  in  one  or  two  gallons  of  water, 


DRUGS 

after  which  the  solution  is  diluted  to  make  10  gallons  of  spray- 
ing material.  This  insecticide  has  also  proved  to  be  an  excel- 
lent repellent  for  ants. 

STROPHANTHUS 

Strophanthus  is  a  twining  shrub  (S.  kombe)  of  the  family 
Apocynacese  and  native  of  Zambesi  and  eastern  Africa.  The 
shrub  bears  opposite  leaves  and  showy  flowers.  The  ripe  seeds 
yield  strophanthin,  an  active  principle  which  has  the  effect  of 
paralyzing  the  involuntary  muscles.  Strophanthus  has  been 
widely  used  by  the  African  natives  as  an  arrow  poison. 


JABORANDI 

The  jaborandi  is  a  small  shrub  (Pilocarpus  jaborandi),  na- 
tive of  Brazil,  with  pinnate  leaves  and  small  flowers  in  loose 
spikes.  The  dried  leaves  are  the  official  drug.  The  leaves 
contain  about  I  per  cent,  of  pilocarpin,  an  alkaloid  used  in 
medicine  to  increase  perspiration  and  salivation. 

CROTON  OIL 

This  product  is  obtained  from  Croton  tiglium,  a  shrub  or 
small  tree  native  of  India.  The  tree  bears  alternate  oblong 
leaves,  small  flowers  in  loose  racemes,  and  3-celled  capsules 
containing  seeds  like  castor  beans.  The  seeds  contain  a  fixed 
oil  (croton  oil)  which  is  obtained  by  pressure.  Croton  oil  is 
a  well  known  violent  and  poisonous  purgative. 

The  physic  nut  (Jatropha  curcas)  is  a  small  shrub,  native  of 
Central  America  and  South  America.  The  seeds  of  this  plant 
yield  an  oil  resembling  croton  oil  in  its  physiological  proper- 
ties. A  similar  oil  is  also  obtained  from  Euphorbia  calyculata, 
known  as  Mexican  croton  oil. 


CHAPTER  XV 
TANS   AND   DYES 

THE  bark  and  other  parts  of  trees  and  herbaceous  plants  in 
tropical  countries  show  a  much  greater  tendency  toward  the 
production  of  tannin  than  is  the  case  in  cold  countries.  This 
fact  has  led  to  thorough  search  of  commercial  sources  of  tan- 
nins, especially  in  tropical  woods.  The  commercial  rank  which 
different  sources  of  tannin  occupy  changes  somewhat  from 
year  to  year  as  the  transportation  facilities  and  other  matters 
concerned  with  the  economics  of  production  are  altered  by 
changing  circumstances.  On  account  of  the  active  quest  for 
suitable  sources  of  tannin,  much  attention  has  been  given 
to  the  percentage  of  tannin  found  in  crude  substances  collected 
as  sources  of  tannin. 

The  dyestuffs  of  vegetable  origin  have  undergone  great  fluc- 
tuations in  value  and  importance  since  they  first  came  into  large 
industrial  use.  In  recent  years  the  markets  of  the  world  have 
been  flooded  with  cheap  synthetic  dyes  which  have  had  the 
effect  of  greatly  checking  the  production  of  natural  dyestuffs. 
None  of  these  artificial  dyes  is  equal  in  value  to  the  natural 
dyes  and  in  view  of  the  great  disturbances  in  the  dye  mar- 
ket resulting  from  the  European  War  it  would  seem  de- 
sirable that  attention  be  again  given  to  renewing  and  extending 
the  production  of  such  natural  dyestuffs  as  cutch,  logwood, 
gamboge,  indigo,  madder,  saffron,  safflower,  etc.  These  dyes 
are  not  only  superior  to  the  artificial  dyes  for  technical  pur- 
poses, but  are  harmless  and  some  of  them  possess  medicinal 
properties. 

228 


TANS  AND  DYES  229 

GAMBIER 

Gambler  is  used  both  as  a  dye  and  a  tanning  agent.  It  is 
also  frequently  called  cutch,  terra  japonica,  and  catechu, 
although  these  terms  are  not  strictly  synonymous.  The  prod- 
uct which  comes  upon  the  market  under  the  name  gambier  is 
derived  from  Uncaria  gambir,  a  climbing  shrub  of  the  madder 
family,  largely  cultivated  near  Singapore  and  in  Java  and  also 
from  Acacia  catechu  and  A.  suma.  In  preparing  the  tanning 
material  the  leaves  and  twigs  of  U.  gambir  and  the  heartwood 
of  A.  catechu  are  boiled  until  they  yield  a  sirupy  extract,  which 
is  then  allowed  to  harden.  Gambier  comes  upon  the  market 
in  purple  resin-like  masses.  It  contains  25  to  50  per  cent,  of 
tannic  acid.  The  catechu  obtained  from  A.  catechu  is  chewed 
by  the  natives  of  India  as  a  gum.  This  plant  should  not  be 
confused  with  Areca  catechu  or  the  Betel-nut  palm.  Gambier 
is  also  used  to  some  extent  in  medicine,  but  chiefly  as  a  dye- 
stuff  for  the  production  of  browns,  fawns,  olives,  and  drabs. 
It  gives  a  strictly  fast  color  and  is  much  used  in  dyeing  khaki. 
The  United  States  imports  nearly  14,000,000  pounds  annually. 
The  leaves  and  spherical  flower  clusters  of  the  gambier  re- 
semble somewhat  those  of  the  button  bush  of  the  United  States. 
This  plant  is  now  extensively  cultivated  in  Java,  where  much 
profit  has  been  found  in  its  production  with  the  result  that  the 
area  cultivated  to  gambier  is  increasing. 

MANGROVE 

Mangrove  trees  of  several  species,  particularly  Rhisophora 
mucronata,  R.  mangle,  etc.,  are  native  of  Ceylon  and  the  Orien- 
tal Tropics.  These  trees  are  of  medium  size  and  exhibit  a 
wide-spreading  growth  of  branches.  They  are  found  in  the 
brackish  swamps  and  muddy  lagoons,  inside  coral  reefs,  and  in 
similar  situations.  The  mangrove  tree  appears  to  stand  on  a 
much  branched  system  of  roots,  somewhat  resembling  Pan- 


230  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

danus  in  this  respect.  In  harvesting  the  mangrove  as  a  source 
of  tannin  the  bark  is  stripped,  dried,  and  packed  in  bales  for 
shipment.  Mangrove  bark  yields  about  40  per  cent,  of  tannin. 
The  bark  also  yields  a  form  of  cutch.  The  United  States  im- 
ported 5,500  tons  of  mangrove  bark  in  1914.  Extensive  areas 
of  swamp  land  in  the  Philippines  are  covered  with  mangrove 
trees,  and  a  beginning  has  been  made  in  harvesting  this  bark  for 
tannin.  Similar  large  areas  of  mangrove  swamps  occur  also 
in  Malaya. 

WATTLE  BARK 

Wattle  bark  as  a  source  of  tannin  is  obtained  from  Acacia 
decurrens  and  various  other  species  of  the  same  genus  native 
to  Australia.  These  trees  are  also  cultivated  in  India,  Ceylon, 
Hawaii,  Natal,  and  various  other  parts  of  the  Tropics.  The 
seeds  are  grown  in  nurseries  and  the  young  seedlings  are  then 
transplanted  at  distances  of  6  to  12  feet  apart  both  ways.  The 
young  trees  are  occasionally  pruned  in  order  to  encourage  the 
development  of  straight  trunks.  The  trees  may  be  cut  and  the 
bark  stripped  off  at  the  age  of  5  or  6  years,  but  the  highest 
percentage  of  tannin  in  the  bark  is  obtained  at  the  age  of  10 
years  or  older.  At  this  time  the  bark  contains  40  per  cent, 
tannin.  On  an  average  an  8-year-old  tree  will  yield  about  25 
pounds  of  dried  bark,  while  the  yield  from  a  fully  mature  tree 
is  about  loo  pounds.  Wattle  bark  is  also  sometimes  called 
mimosa  bark.  It  is  much  used,  especially  in  tanning  sole 
leather.  Wattle  trees  are  short  lived,  and  in  order  to  secure 
the  greatest  harvest  of  bark  the  trees  should  be  cut  at  the  age 
of  10  to  15  years. 

QUEBRACHO 

Quebracho  extract  and  bark  has  recently  assumed  unusual 
importance  as  a  tanning  agent.  The  commercial  product  is 
obtained  from  a  large  tree  (Loxopterygium  lorentzvi)  of  South 
America,  particularly  Brazil  and  Argentina.  The  wood  of  the 


TANS  AND  DYES 

quebracho  tree  is  unusually  hard.  The  trees  cover  enormous 
areas  in  Argentina,  where  they  occur  in  almost  pure  stands. 
The  heartwood  of  quebracho  contains  20  to  25  per  cent,  of 
tannin  and  the  extract  of  this  wood  gives  a  reddish  color  to 
leather.  In  1914  the  United  States  imported  74,000  tons  of 
quebracho  wood  and  93,000,000  pounds  of  extract  of  que- 
bracho. It  is  one  of  the  hardest  known  woods.  The  bark  and 
sap  wood  are  useless  for  tanning  purposes  and  only  the  heart- 
wood  is  used  as  a  source  of  tannin.  The  quebracho  logs  which 
are  shipped  to  the  United  States  sometimes  come  from  trees 
which  were  1,000  years  old  or  more.  The  quebracho  extract 
is  called  a  sweet  tan  since  it  does  not  ferment.  It  is  used  in 
tanning  harness,  belting,  and  sole  leather.  It  penetrates  leather 
rapidly  and  uniformly. 

DIVI-DIVI 

A  small  leguminous  tree  (C&salpinia  coriaria),  native  of 
Central  America  and  West  Indies,  produces  small  twisted  pods 
which  are  used  as  a  source  of  tannin  and  which  bear  the  trade 
name  divi-divi  pods.  The  tree  reaches  a  height  of  20  feet 
and  bears  white  flowers  and  flat  pods  about  £4  inch  wide  and  3 
inches  long.  These  pods  yield  from  30  to  50  per  cent,  of  tan- 
nin. Divi-divi  pods  are  used  in  the  tanning  industry  as  a 
substitute  for  sumac  and  oak  gall  apples.  The  tree  is  propa- 
gated by  seed  and  planted  about  16  by  16  feet  apart  both  ways. 
The  pods  are  picked  when  fully  ripe.  Mature  trees  yield  from 
40  to  75  pounds  of  dried  pods  annually. 

LOGWOOD 

This  well  known  dyestuff  is  obtained  from  a  small  legumi- 
nous tree  (Hematoxylon  campechianum) ,  native  of  Central 
America,  but  now  introduced  into  nearly  all  parts  of  the 
Tropics.  At  present  logwood  is  produced  chiefly  in  Mexico, 
Haiti,  Dominican  Republic,  Cuba,  and  other  West  Indian  Is- 


232  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

lands.  The  United  States  imported  40,000  tons  of  logwood  in 
1914.  The  tree  is  propagated  by  seed,  usually  in  nurseries, 
and  the  young  seedlings  are  then  transplanted  about  15  by  15 
feet  apart  both  ways.  The  trees  are  felled  at  the  age  of  10 
to  12  years.  The  bark  and  white  sapwood  are  removed  and 
the  red  heartwood  is  packed  in  bales  or  bundles  for  shipment. 
The  wood  yields  a  red  dye  known  as  hematoxylin. 

GAMBOGE 

Several  species  of  the  same  genus  of  trees  (Garcinia  cam- 
bogia,  G.  morella,  and  G.  hanburyi)  yield  the  commercial  prod- 
uct gamboge.  These  trees  are  native  of  the  East  Indies,  Cey- 
lon, Siam,  and  Cambodia.  The  gamboge  belongs  to  the  family 
Guttiferse  and  the  tree  attains  a  height  of  30  to  50  feet.  A 
yellow  viscid  latex  exudes  from  incisions  made  in  the  bark 
and  dries  into  a  hard  mass  upon  exposure  to  the  air.  The  best 
quality  of  gamboge  comes  from  Siam.  Crude  gamboge  yields 
about  70  per  cent,  of  a  beautiful  yellow  resin  which  is  soluble 
in  alcohol  and  is  used  by  painters  to  give  the  well  known  gam- 
boge yellow.  Rarely,  gamboge  is  employed  in  medicine  as  a 
violent  cathartic. 

FUSTIC  WOOD 

Fustic  wood  has  long  been  used  as  a  source  of  yellow  and 
brown  dyes  for  leather  and  wool.  The  importation  of  this 
wood  into  the  United  States  since  1905  has  ranged  between 
3,000  and  4,500  tons  annually.  On  account  of  the  present 
scarcity  of  aniline  dyes  the  importation  increased  during  1915 
to  about  14,000  tons,  and  the  value  of  the  wood  has  also  con- 
siderably increased. 

Fustic  wood  is  obtained  from  Madura  tinctoria,  a  tree  closely 
related  to  the  osage  orange  and  native  of  the  West  Indies  and 
tropical  America.  The  sap  wood  of  this  tree  is  thin  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  thickness  of  the  trunk  is  therefore  heart- 
wood,  which  is  light  yellow  when  fresh,  gradually  turning  to  a 


TANS  AND  DYES  233 

yellowish-brown.  Europe  imports  fustic  wood  chiefly  from 
South  America,  while  the  United  States  obtains  its  supply  of 
the  wood  principally  from  Mexico  and  the  British  West  Indies. 
Fustic  wood  is  imported  largely  in  sticks  2  to  4  feet  long  and 
3  to  8  inches  in  diameter,  but  also  in  the  form  of  chips,  powder, 
or  paste. 

A  number  of  substitutes  have  been  used  for  adulterating 
fustic  wood,  among  them  osage  orange,  smoke  tree  (Rhus  cot- 
imis),  southern  prickly  ash,  espino,  satin  wood,  yellow  logwood, 
and  other  West  Indian  species  of  Xanthoxylum.  For  some 
purposes  the  wood  of  osage  orange  has  been  considered  as 
superior  to  true  fustic  wood.  The  osage  orange  has  been  used 
successfully  in  conjunction  with  logwood  and  various  other 
mordant  dyes.  The  dye  obtained  from  osage  orange  appears 
to  be  equally  as  fast  as  that  of  fustic  wood.  Both  of  these 
woods  are  used  in  producing  dye  for  leather  and  many  experi- 
ments along  this  line  have  already  been  conducted  by  certain 
tanneries.  Osage  orange  is  used  chiefly  for  making  wagon 
felloes  and  fence  posts.  The  irregularity  of  the  trunks,  how- 
ever, occasions  large  waste,  estimated  at  40,000  to  50,000  tons 
annually  in  Texas  and  Oklahoma. 

As  already  indicated  the  osage  orange  is  closely  related  to 
true  fustic  and  belongs  to  the  botanical  species  Madura  pomi- 
fera.  True  fustic  has  often  been  called  old  fustic  to  distinguish 
it  from  so-called  young  fustic,  which  was  obtained  from  the 
wood  of  Rhus  cotinus.  The  latter  attains  only  a  small  size,  sel- 
dom furnishing  sticks  more  than  3  inches  in  diameter.  On  ac- 
count of  the  use  of  the  term  young  fustic  for  these  sticks  of 
wood  the  idea  gained  ground  that  they  were  small  branches 
of  the  true  fustic  tree. 

BRAZILWOOD 

Several  species  of  the  leguminous  genus  Caesalpinia  have 
been  used  as  a  source  of  dyes.  One  of  these  trees,  known  as 
C  bwsHiettsis,  has  been  called  Brazilwood,  although  this  term 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

is  essentially  a  misnomer  since  the  tree  does  not  occur  in  Brazil. 
Brazilwood  and  the  related  species,  Pernambuco  wood  (C. 
echinata),  both  furnish  a  yellowish  heartwood  which  has  long 
been  recognized  as  having  a  value  for  dye  purposes.  In  the 
East  Indies  another  species,  C.  sappan,  commonly  called  Sap- 
panwood,  has  been  far  more  extensively  used  as  a  source  of 
dye,  the  wood  being  shipped  in  large  quantities  from  India  to 
Europe.  In  the  Pernambuco  wood  the  sapwood  is  extremely 
thick,  while  the  commercial  heartwood  constitutes  only  a  small 
cylinder  of  the  tree.  Brazilwood  yields  a  red  dye  known  as 
brazilin,  which  is  used  in  calico  printing,  especially  in  mixed 
reds  and  browns  and  also  in  red  ink.  Sappanwood  yields  a 
red  dye,  formerly  much  exported  from  India.  DyestufT  is  ob- 
tained from  the  wood,  bark,  or  pods  of  this  tree,  but  chiefly 
from  the  wood.  The  Sappan  dye  is  especially  valuable  in  dye- 
ing wool  and  calico. 

Camwood  or  barwood  (Baphia  nitida)  comes  from  a  large 
leguminous  tree  native  of  Angola  and  other  parts  of  Western 
Africa.  It  yields  a  brilliant  red  dye.  The  United  States  im- 
ports only  a  few  hundred  tons  of  this  wood  annually,  but  it  is 
employed  much  more  extensively  in  England.  Camwood  dye 
is  used  mostly  in  calico  printing. 


INDIGO 

The  vegetable  dye  indigo  is  obtained  from  a  number  of 
shrubby  perennial  or  annual  legumes  (Indigo f era  tinctoria, 
I.  anil,  I.  arrecta,  etc.).  These  plants  attain  a  height  of  2  to  6 
feet  and  readily  escape  from  cultivation,  covering  large  areas 
of  ground  as  a  weed.  The  indigo  industry  was  once  quite 
widely  spread,  but  is  now  confined  largely  to  India,  Siam,  Java, 
and  Natal.  Since  the  year  1880,  synthetic  indigo  has  made 
the  cultivation  of  indigo  unprofitable  except  in  favorable  locali- 
ties. The  natural  dye,  however,  is  superior  to  the  artificial 
product  and  is  still  in  demand. 


TANS  AND  DYES  235 

In  propagating  indigo  the  seeds  are  sown  in  rows  about  2, 
feet  apart.  The  flowers  appear  about  3  months  from  the 
time  of  seeding.  The  plants  are  then  cut  and  steeped  in  water 
for  12  to  1 6  hours,  after  which  the  water  is  run  off  into  an- 
other vat  where  it  is  actively  agitated  for  2  or  3  hours  until 
the  indigo  forms  by  oxidation  and  settles  to  the  bottom. 
The  water  is  then  drained  off,  leaving  the  blue  precipitate 
which  is  cut  into  blocks  and  dried.  In  the  experience  of  in- 
digo planters  in  India  it  has  been  found  that  a  yield  of -20,000 
pounds  of  green  material  per  acre  is  satisfactory.  The  yield 
for  the  rattoon  crops  is  somewhat  less.  From  20,000  pounds 
of  green  material  about  500  pounds  of  indigo  paste  is  obtained. 
The  best  grade  of  indigo  is  obtained  from  Java.  In  Java  it 
has  been  demonstrated  that  indigo  may  be  grown  profitably 
in  combination  with  tea  by  planting  the  indigo  as  an  intercrop 
between  the  tea  plants.  After  harvesting  the  indigo  the  plant 
residues  may  be  used  as  a  fertilizer  for  the  tea. 

The  indigo  plant  is  extremely  hardy  and,  as  already  indi- 
cated, will  propagate  itself  as  a  weed  even  if  totally  neglected. 
It  has  already  been  distributed  throughout  nearly  all  of  the 
tropical  countries.  It  seems  more  than  probable  that  the  pres- 
ent high  prices  of  dyestuffs  will  bring  about  a  revival  of  the 
industry  of  producing  natural  indigo. 


HENNA 

Henna  (Lawsonia  alba)  is  a  much  branched  shrub,  native 
of  Persia,  Egypt,  Arabia,  India,  etc.  The  shrub  bears  oppo- 
site oval  leaves  and  at  maturity  reaches  a  height  of  8  to  10 
feet.  The  dyestuff  henna  is  obtained  from  the  leaves  and 
young  shoots.  The  first  clipping  of  young  shoots  with  the 
leaves  may  be  made  at  the  age  of  3  years  and  clippings  may 
be  made  twice  annually  thereafter.  The  leaves  are  dried, 
ground,  and  made  into  a  paste  with  water.  This  material  is 
used  by  Oriental  women  as  an  orange  cosmetic  for  the  eye- 


236  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

brows,  finger  nails,  and  hair,  and  by  Oriental  men  for  finger 
nails,  hair,  and  beard.  Henna  is  used  in  India  in  coloring 
leather  and  certain  fabrics.  At  one  time  it  was  widely  used 
in  France  as  a  dyestuff  for  silk  fabrics.  Otherwise  the  ma- 
terial is  used  chiefly  in  the  Tropics.  The  plant  has  been  dis- 
tributed from  Persia  and  Egypt  to  various  parts  of  the  Tropics. 
It  is  hardly  cultivated  at  present,  however,  except  in  Turkey, 
Persia,  Egypt,  and  East  Indies.  The  henna  production  of 
Egypt  at  one  time  reached  the  extent  of  6,000,000  Ibs.  annu- 
ally. Henna  makes  a  fast  dye,  whether  used  on  fabrics  or  as 
a  cosmetic. 

MADDER 

Madder  is  a  herbaceous  climber  (Rubia  tinctorum)  with 
perennial  roots.  The  plant  is  cultivated  in  various  countries 
from  Afghanistan  to  Spain.  It  is  propagated  by  seed  or 
clippings.  The  dye  is  made  from  3  or  4-year-old  roots.  These 
roots  are  prepared  in  the  form  of  an  infusion  which  yields 
the  beautiful  scarlet  madder  or  coffee-brown  color.  The 
plant  is  still  cultivated  to  a  small  extent  in  several  countries, 
and  the  best  grade  of  the  dye  comes  from  the  Levant  and 
Italy.  Rubia  cordifolia,  a  plant  native  to  India,  is  used  for 
the  same  purpose.  Madder  root  comes  on  the  market  either 
whole  or  powdered.  One  of  the  active  coloring  substances 
in  madder  is  alazarin.  This  substance  has  been  synthesized 
by  industrial  chemists  and  an  artificial  madder  dye  of  inferior 
quality  is  now  upon  the  market. 

ANNATTO 

This  well  known  dye,  which  has  been  used  for  coloring 
butter  and  cheese,  is  derived  from  Bixa  orellana,  a  bush  or 
small  tree  native  of  Central  America  and  South  America. 
The  plant  is  cultivated  in  Guiana,  Ceylon,  Brazil,  Guadeloupe, 
Zanzibar,  and  in  other  tropical  countries.  The  bush  attains 


TANS  AND  DYES  237 

a  height  of  7  to  10  feet  and  bears  cordate  leaves,  blue  flowers 
in  terminal  clusters,  and  ovoid,  spiny,  two-valved  pods,  con- 
taining 30  to  50  seeds.  The  seeds  are  surrounded  with  a  scar- 
let tissue  from  which  the  dye  is  obtained.  Annatto  seeds 
are  shipped  with  their  scarlet  covering  or  the  scarlet  paste 
is  removed  and  shipped  as  such.  England  uses  about  75  tons 
of  annatto  annually  and  corresponding  quantities  are  imported 
into  the  United  States.  The  tree  is  propagated  from  seed 
and  begins  bearing  at  the  age  of  3  years.  Annatto  dye  has 
been  used  in  coloring  lacquer,  calico,  and  wool,  but  chiefly 
as  a  coloring  matter  for  butter  and  cheese.  The  active  prin- 
ciple of  annatto  is  annatoin. 


SAFFLOWER 

Safflower  (Carthamus  tinctorius)  belongs  to  the  Composite 
family,  resembling  the  thistle  somewhat  in  general  habit  of 
growth.  It  attains  a  height  of  2  to  4  feet  and  bears  beautiful 
yellow  or  orange  yellow  heads  of  flowers.  The  safflower  is 
native  of  India,  whence  it  was  introduced  in  ancient  times 
to  Egypt,  the  Levant,  and  various  other  tropical  and  sub- 
tropical countries.  At  the  present  time  the  chief  source  of 
safflower  is  in  Bengal  and  southern  France.  The  flowers  are 
picked  in  dry  weather  and  are  immediately  desiccated  in  an 
oven.  During  the  period  of  drying  the  flowers  are  slowly 
pressed  together  into  cakes  in  which  form  the  product  comes 
upon  the  market.  In  Bengal  farmers  prefer  lands  which  are 
subject  to  overflow  in  growing  safflower.  The  seed  is  sown 
broadcast  in  December  and  plants  are  later  thinned  out  so 
as  to  stand  4  or  5  inches  apart.  The  flowers  are  ready  for 
picking  about  100  days  after  the  crop  is  sown.  In  India 
the  safflower  is  grown  both  for  the  dye  obtained  from  the 
flowers  and  for  an  oil  obtained  from  the  seed,  but  chiefly  for 
the  red  dye.  Safflower  has  been  found  to  be  an  exhausting 
crop  and  has  to  be  grown,  therefore,  in  a  system  of  rotation. 


238  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

The  flowers  are  readily  injured  by  rain  storms  which  may 
occur  after  they  are  fully  opened.  It  has  been  learned  that 
the  flowers  must  be  picked  as  soon  as  they  begin  to  be  brightly 
colored.  Any  delay  may  allow  a  fading  of  the  dyestuff  in  the 
petals.  The  average  yield  of  dry  flowers  is  about  80  pounds 
per  acre. 

SAFFRON 

The  dyestuff  saffron  is  obtained  from  the  stigmas  and  tips 
of  the  styles  of  Crocus  sativus.  This  form  of  Crocus  was 
apparently  native  to  Greece  and  Asia  Minor.  At  any  rate,  it 
has  been  cultivated  in  those  countries  since  the  earliest  times. 
The  plant  is  a  perenn'al  with  a  rounded  bulb  and  large  hand- 
some bluish  or  lavender  flowers.  Large  quantities  of  saffron 
are  produced  in  Persia  and  Egypt.  The  plant  thrives  in 
cold  countries.  As  is  well  known,  it  is  grown  in  the  United 
States  as  an  ornamental,  but  a  good  quality  of  saffron  has 
been  produced  in  Pennsylvania.  The  saffron  crocus  is  a  fall 
bloomer  and  a  different  variety  from  the  spring  blooming 
ornamental.  The  labor  Vost  of  producing  saffron,  however,  is 
too  high  for  the  encouragement  of  this  industry  in  the  United 
States.  As  already  indicated,  official  saffron  includes  the  stig- 
mas and  tips  of  the  styles  of  the  saffron  flowers.  These  parts 
are  clipped  off  as  soon  as  the  flowers  open  and  are  dried  in 
the  sun  or  by  the  aid  of  artificial  heat.  It  requires  5  pounds 
of  fresh  stigmas  to  make  I  pound  of  dried  saffron.  The 
present  supply  of  saffron  comes  largely  from  Trieste,  Spain, 
Greece,  and  Turkey.  Saffron  is  used  both  as  a  medicine  and 
as  a  dyestuff.  It  is  readily  soluble  in  water  and  therefore  not 
suitable  for  use  on  fabrics.  It  is  perfectly  harmless,  however, 
and  has  been  widely  used  in  coloring  food  products. 


CHAPTER   XVI 
SPICES    AND   FLAVORINGS 

SPICES  played  a  very  important  part  in  the  history  of  Europe 
during  the  Middle  Ages  and  up  to  the  i6th  century.  The  first 
knowledge  of  tropical  spices  was  perhaps  brought  to  Europe 
by  Arab  and  Jewish  tradesmen.  These  materials  brought 
large  prices  and  were  widely  sought  by  the  courts  and  aris- 
tocracy of  European  countries.  The  existence  of  spices  in 
far-off,  and  at  that  time  unknown  tropical  countries,  led  to 
great  activity  in  the  building  of  sailing  vessels  and  to  deep 
study  of  navigation  by  sailors.  In  fact,  the  geography  and 
history  of  the  whole  world  have  been  much  modified  as  a 
result  of  the  struggle  for  the  possession  of  spices.  The  quest 
of  spices  took  the  form  of  a  furor  which  affected  some  of 
the  European  States  almost  as  much  as  the  Crusades.  When 
Vasco  da  Gama  rounded  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  reached 
India,  the  primary  result  of  his  expedition  was  to  lay  "the 
foundation  of  a  colonial  empire  for  Portugal,  giving  Portugal 
a  large  supply  of  spices.  Later  the  Dutch  activities  in  India 
and  the  East  Indies  led  to  an  attempt  to  secure  a  monopoly 
of  the  whole  spice  trade,  in  which  complete  success  was  at- 
tained in  so  far  as  cinnamon  was  concerned  till  the  year  1833. 
The  success  of  the  Portuguese  and  Dutch  led  to  great  efforts 
of  colonization  on  the  part  of  the  English  and  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Straits  Settlements  and  other  English  colonies 
in  Asia. 

All  tropical  spice  plants  of  economic  importance  were  native 
to  the  Asiatic  tropics  with  the  exception  of  vanilla,  capsicum, 
and  pimento,  which  come  from  the  American  tropics,  and 

239 


240  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

grains  of  Paradise  and  Ravensara  nuts,  which  come  from 
Africa. 

ALLSPICE 

Allspice,  also  commonly  called  pimento  (Pimenta  officinalis) , 
is  a  tree  native  to  Jamaica  and  other  West  Indies  and  Cen- 
tral America.  It  has  sometimes  been  referred  to  as  Eugenia 
pimenta.  The  tree  attains  a  height  of  15  to  40  feet  and  bears 
opposite  shiny  leaves.  The  leaves  contain  an  essential  oil 
which  is  used  like  that  of  Pimenta  acrls  in  the  preparation  of 
bay  rum.  The  flowers  of  the  allspice  tree  are  small  and  white 
and  the  tree  bears  a  purple  one-seeded  fruit  about  the  size  of 
a  pea.  In  ripening  the  fruit  loses  much  of  its  aroma.  It  is 
therefore  picked  before  fully  ripe.  The  fruit  clusters  are 
cut  from  the  tree  with  a  crook  or  curved  knife  at  the  end  of 
a  bamboo  pole,  or  if  more  convenient  the  branches  are  pulled 
down  with  a  curved  stick  and  the  fruit  clusters  clipped  off. 
The  fruit  is  dried  in  the  sun  for  3  to  12  days  or  in  a  fruit 
evaporator,  after  which  the  material  is  ready  for  market. 
Allspice  is  propagated  by  seed,  the  planting  distance  being 
about  20  by  20  feet.  The  bush  begins  to  bear  at  about  8 
years  of  age  and  reaches  full  bearing  at  15  years.  The  aver- 
age yield  of  mature  trees  is  about  75  pounds  of  dried  fruit 
per  tree  per  year.  At  present  the  world's  supply  of  allspice 
comes  chiefly  from  Jamaica,  which  country  exports  about 
11,000,000  pounds  annually.  An  oil  is  extracted  from  the 
pimento  fruit  and  is  sold  under  the  name  pimento  oil.  This 
matter  is  further  discussed  under  oils.  The  commercial  all- 
spice is  not  closely  related  to  other  plants  which  sometimes 
bear  the  name  allspice  with  certain  qualifying  adjectives. 
Carolina  allspice,  for  example,  or  sweet-scented  shrub,  bears 
the  botanical  name  Calycanthus  fioridus  and  the  wild  allspice 
of  the  Northern  States  is  Lindera  benzoin. 


SPICES  AND  FLAVORINGS 


CARDAMOMS 

The  cardamom  plant  is  a  perennial  herbaceous  plant  (Elet- 
taria  cardamomum),  native  of  Ceylon  and  India  and  belong- 
ing to  the  same  family  with  ginger.  The  plant  produces 
large  creeping  rhizomes  or  rootstocks  and  leafy  stems  6  to  10 
feet  high  in  dense  clumps.  The  leaves,  somewhat  resembling 
those  of  the  ginger,  are  i  to  3  feet  long  and  are  provided 
with  conspicuous  pinnate  veins.  The  flowering  stems  are 
about  2  to  3  feet  high  and  bear  numerous  flowers  in  short 
racemes.  The  fruit  of  the  cardamom  is  rounded  and  usually 
somewhat  3-angled.  It  is  3-celled,  each  cell  containing  about 
5  seeds.  The  fruit  is  picked  in  a  green  condition,  dried,  and 
bleached  in  the  sun  and  usually  further  bleached  by  sulphur- 
ing. The  capsules  are  then  cream  white  and  papery  in  tex- 
ture, being  about  J^  to  %  inch  long.  Cardamoms  are  propa- 
gated by  division  of  the  rootstocks,  which  are  planted  about 
8  feet  apart  both  ways.  During  the  early  stages  of  growth 
some  shade  is  desirable.  The  cardamom  plant  begins  to  bear 
at  the  age  of  3  years  and  comes  into  full  bearing  at  6  years. 
From  this  time  on  for  many  years  a  yield  of  100  to  300  pounds 
of  dried  cardamoms  may  be  expected  per  acre.  The  plant 
bears  the  year  round  but  the  best  crop  is  obtained  during 
the  dry  season.  It  is  desirable  to  harvest  the  fruits  by  cutting 
them  off  with  scissors.  A  good  day's  picking  for  one  laborer 
is  10  to  15  pounds.  The  world's  supply  of  cardamoms  comes 
almost  entirely  from  India,  especially  the  Malabar  coast  and 
Ceylon.  Ceylon  exports  about  500,000  pounds  annually. 
Cardamoms  are  used  as  an  ingredient  of  curry  powders,  for 
flavoring  cakes  and  liqueurs,  and  in  aromatic  drugs  and  for 
various  other  purposes. 

CASSIA  BARK 

The  cassia  tree  of  southern  China  (Cinnamomum  cassia) 
is  closely  related  to  the  true  cinnamon  and  is  said  to  have 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

been  used  since  3000  B.  C.  in  China  as  a  substitute  for  cin- 
namon. The  tree  attains  a  height  of  25  to  50  feet  and  closely 
resembles  in  appearance  the  true  cinnamon  tree.  Cassia  bark 
was  used  as  a  spice  in  various  countries  long  before  true  cin- 
namon was  employed  for  that  purpose.  The  best  grade  of 
Chinese  cassia  bark,  or  cassia  lignea,  is  nearly  as  aromatic 
as  true  cinnamon  and  may  be  used  for  the  same  purposes. 
Young  trees  are  cut  down  at  the  age  of  6  years  and  the 
branches  harvested  for  their  yield  of  bark.  The  bark  is  slipped 
from  branches  about  I  inch  in  diameter  and  flattened  out,  after 
which  the  epidermis  is  removed  with  a  plane.  The  bark  is 
then  dried  for  a  period  of  about  24  hours  and  baled. 

All  parts  of  the  plant  may  be  used  for  distillation  of  cassia 
oil.  The  dried  unripe  fruits,  called  cassia  buds  in  trade,  are 
much  used  in  the  place  of  cinnamon.  The  United  States 
imports  about  6,000,000  pounds  of  cassia  bark  annually.  In 
China  there  are  approximately  60,000  acres  devoted  to  the 
cultivation  of  cassia.  The  yield  averages  1^2  tons  per  acre 
every  6  years.  The  bark  of  C.  iners  and  C.  sintoc  of  Malaya 
and  of  C.  massoia  of  New  Guinea  is  also  used  for  the  same 
purpose.  In  India  the  leaves  of  C.  tamala  and  C.  obtusi- 
folium  are  almost  universally  used  by  the  natives  as  a  spice. 
The  fallen  leaves  have  been  found  to  be  just  as  aromatic  as 
the  freshly  picked  leaves.  It  is  only  necessary,  therefore,  to 
have  a  tree  or  two  in  the  dooryard  to  furnish  a  continuous 
supply  of  flavoring  material  for  home  use. 


CINNAMON 

The  true  cinnamon  (Cinnamomum  zeylanicum)  of  Ceylon 
and  India  is  a  tree  attaining  a  height  of  20  to  60  feet  with  a 
densely  branched  compact  head,  dark  green  leathery  leaves, 
and  small  yellow  flowers  in  lateral  and  terminal  panicles. 
Ceylon  cinnamon  is  commonly  considered  of  finer  quality  than 
that  from  Malabar.  In  the  early  days  of  the  cinnamon  in- 


SPICES  AND  FLAVORINGS  243 

dustry,  the  bark  was  collected  from  wild  trees.  Under  cul- 
tivation it  has  been  found  that  the  tree  thrives  best  at  an 
elevation  of  about  1,000  feet.  The  cinnamon  tree  is  propagated 
by  seed.  The  young  seedlings  are  planted  at  distances  of 
6  to  12  feet  apart  both  ways.  Most  planters  consider  that 
some  shade  for  the  cinnamon  tree  is  desirable.  The  tree  may 
also  be  propagated  from  cuttings.  In  fact,  this  is  a  quicker 
method  than  that  of  planting  the  seed.  The  seedlings  may  be 
cut  the  second  or  third  year.  Three  or  four  shoots  appear 
from  each  seedling  stump  and  with  the  constant  repetition 
of  this  process  the  plantation  finally  becomes  a  thicket.  As 
a  rule,  two  harvests  are  made  each  year  by  cutting  the  2  or 
3-year-old  canes  at  a  time  when  the  bark  slips  readily.  The 
twigs  are  at  once  carried  to  the  peeling  shed,  where  they  are 
ringed  and  split  longitudinally,  after  which  the  strips  of  bark 
are  stripped  off.  These  strips  of  bark  are  kept  moist  over 
night,  the  epidermis  being  scraped  off  next  morning.  In  drying 
the  strips  of  bark  roll  into  quills.  These  quills  are  packed  in 
"pipes"  by  selecting  the  larger  unbroken  quills  and  packing  the 
smaller  quills  inside  of  them.  The  pipes  weigh  about  i  ounce 
and  are  packed  together  in  bales  of  approximately  100  pounds. 
About  one-third  of  the  cinnamon  exported  is  in  the  form 
of  chips  and  broken  pieces.  Cinnamon  also  comes  from  French 
Guiana,  Brazil,  and  the  Federated  Malay  States.  Ceylon 
exports  about  6,500,000  pounds  annually.  The  yield  is  about 
loo  pounds  of  dried  bark  per  acre.  The  chief  uses  of  cin- 
namon are  familiar  to  practically  all  readers.  It  is  also 
employed  as  a  medicine  and  as  an  incense.  The  large  per- 
centage of  the  cinnamon  bark  is  used  in  the  production  of 
cinnamon  oil,  which  is  discussed  under  oils. 

CHILIES 

Chilies,  or  capsicum  peppers  (Capsicum  minimum,  C.  an- 
nuum,  and  C.  frutescens)  are  familiar  herbs  or  semi-shrubby 


244  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

plants  in  almost  every  garden  throughout  the  Tropics  and  even 
in  temperate  climates.  C.  minimum,  or  bird  pepper,  attains  a 
height  of  2  or  3  feet.  The  leaves  are  thin  and  narrowly  lanceo- 
late and  the  white  flowers  are  about  %  inch  in  diameter.  The 
fruit  is  of  an  orange  or  scarlet  color,  oblong  in  shape,  and 
YZ  to  J4  inch  in  length.  This  plant  is  extensively  cultivated 
in  East  Indies,  Zanzibar,  Japan,  and  various  other  tropical 
countries.  It  is  the  source  of  most  of  the  cayenne  pepper  of 
commerce.  C.  annuum  is  taller  and  bears  larger  leaves  and 
pods,  3  inches  in  length.  This  pepper  is  commonly  called 
capsicum  or  pod  pepper  and  is  extensively  cultivated  in  Cali- 
fornia and  the  Southern  States.  If  grown  as  annuals,  the 
crop  is  harvested  in  about  8  months.  In  the  Tropics  the  plants 
may  be  allowed  to  stand  for  3  years  or  more.  It  is  propagated 
by  seed  and  planted  at  distances  which  allow  from  6,000 
to  10,000  plants  per  acre.  The  ordinary  yield  of  dried 
chilies  per  acre  varies  from  1,000  to  1,500  pounds  an- 
nually. 

The  bird  pepper  pods  are  thoroughly  dried  in  the  sun  and 
then  in  an  oven,  after  which  the  pods  are  beaten  to  a  powder. 
In  the  further  preparation  of  the  material  about  15  times  as 
much  flour  is  added  to  the  beaten  pepper  powder  and  the 
mixture  is  then  baked  and  later  ground  to  make  the  common 
red  or  cayenne  pepper  of  the  trade.  Capsicum  peppers  are 
used  in  curry,  in  Hungarian  paprika,  in  tabasco  sauce,  as  red 
or  cayenne  pepper,  as  feed  for  cage  birds  and  domestic  fowls, 
and  in  medicine. 

In  India  it  appears  that  chilies  do  best  on  sandy  loam  and 
alluvial  soils  or  on  upland  soils  containing  an  abundance  of 
lime.  The  crop  is  always  affected  favorably  by  a  previous  crop 
of  legumes.  Chilies  may  be  allowed  to  grow  for  many 
years  as  ornamental  plants  or  for  household  use.  Poultry 
raisers  quite  commonly  have  a  few  of  these  plants  in 
chicken  yards.  Most  domestic  fowls  appear  to  be  fond  of 
the  peppers. 


SPICES  AND  FLAVORINGS  245 

CORIANDER 

Coriander  is  an  annual  umbelliferous  plant  (Coriandrum 
sativum),  i  or  2  feet  high,  with  pinnate  leaves  and  small 
umbels  of  white  flowers.  It  is  a  native  of  the  Mediterranean 
region  and  is  most  extensively  propagated  in  India  and  South- 
ern Europe.  The  fruit  or  seed  consists  of  two  concave  halves. 
This  spice  has  been  known  since  the  dawn  of  history.  It 
is  widely  used  in  curry  powder,  in  confectionery,  and  in 
flavoring  gin  and  whisky. 

CAPER 

Caper  is  a  trailing  shrub  (Capparis  spinosa),  a  native  of 
the  Mediterranean  countries  and  now  chiefly  cultivated  in 
Sicily,  Italy,  the  southern  part  of  France  and  in  the  Southern 
States.  The  unopened  flower  pods  are  gathered  every  morn- 
ing and  at  once  pickled  in  salt  and  vinegar.  This  material  is 
used  in  flavoring  meat  sauces.  It  is  slightly  laxative  in  effect. 

CURRY  POWDER 

Curry  powder  is  a  mixed  condiment,  widely  used  through- 
out the  Orient  to  flavor  rice  and  meats,  particularly  poultry. 
Curry  powders  commonly  contain  sago  or  tamarind  as  a  basis 
of  the  paste  to  which  are  added  curry  leaves  (Murray a 
kceningii),  turmeric,  fenugreek,  ginger,  chilies,  pepper,  cara- 
way, cinnamon,  etc. 

CUMMIN 

Cummin  is  an  annual  plant  i  to  2  feet  high  with  seeds  much 
like  those  of  caraway  but  slightly  larger.  The  flowers  are 
rose-colored  and  borne  in  small  umbels.  The  plant  bears  the 
botanical  name  Cuminum  cyminum.  It  is  a  native  of  the 
Mediterranean  region  and  is  now  grown  chiefly  in  Malta,  Per- 
sia, Turkey,  and  Punjab.  Cummin  seed  are  used  chiefly  as  an 
ingredient  of  curry  and  in  native  medicinal  preparations. 


246  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

PEPPER 

The  source  of  the  common  black  and  white  pepper  of 
commerce  is  the  plant  known  botanically  as  Piper  nigruni 
of  Ceylon  and  southern  India.  This  plant  is  chiefly  culti- 
vated in  Penang,  Malabar,  Sumatra,  Ceylon,  Java,  Africa,  and 
the  West  Indies.  The  pepper  plant  is  a  woody  climber  with 
alternate  ovate,  smooth  leaves,  and  catkins  of  small  flowers 
opposite  the  leaves.  When  mature  the  catkins  are  J4  inch  in 
diameter  and  4  to  6  inches  long.  Each  catkin  bears  about  50 
berries  or  pepper  corns.  The  plant  is  strictly  tropical  in  habitat, 
being  cultivated  about  20°  north  and  south  of  the  Equator. 
It  requires  a  heavy  rainfall.  The  pepper  plant  is  commonly 
propagated  by  cuttings  from  the  tips  of  the  bearing  vines. 
The  cuttings  should  be  well  rooted  before  planting. 

Pepper  plants  require  some  support  during  their  growth. 
For  this  purpose  trees  are  preferable  to  artificial  support.  The 
mango,  Jack  fruit,  and  Erythrina  lithosperma  are  commonly 
recommended  for  this  purpose.  Pepper  begins  bearing  at  3 
years  of  age  and  reaches  full  bearing  at  7  years.  The  fruiting 
life  of  the  plant  is  from  7  to  15  years.  If  hardwood  posts  or 
artificial  supports  are  used,  the  planting  distance  may  be  7  feet 
apart  both  ways.  At  that  rate  the  yield  should  be  2,000  pounds 
of  pepper  per  acre.  Pepper  berries  are  red  when  ripe  but 
turn  black  in  drying. 

Black  pepper  is  the  ground  berries  with  the  outer  covering. 
If  the  outer  covering  is  first  removed  by  soaking  in  water 
and  rubbing,  the  resulting  product  when  ground  is  white 
pepper.  In  other  words,  white  pepper  is  made  from  the  rip- 
ened seeds  only.  In  preparing  white  pepper  the  fruit  is  al- 
lowed to  ripen  more  fully  than  for  black  peper.  Black  pepper 
is  more  pungent  than  white  pepper  but  the  white  pepper  is 
usually  preferred  in  the  trade.  Pepper  is  perhaps  most  ex- 
tensively used  in  the  sausage-making  and  meat-preserving  in- 
dustries, while  the  table  use  of  pepper  is  secondary  from  a 


SPICES  AND  FLAVORINGS 

commercial    standpoint.      The   United    States    imports   about 
25,000,000  pounds  of  pepper  annually. 


LONG  PEPPER 

The  long  pepper  plant  is  closely  related  to  the  common 
commercial  pepper  and  bears  the  botanical  name  Piper  longum. 
It  is  a  creeping  but  not  climbing  woody  vine,  native  to  Bengal, 
Assam,  and  Ceylon.  The  plant  bears  cordate,  pointed  leaves 
and  erect  fruiting  branches  about  i  inch  long.  The  whole 
spike  of  red  drupes  is  marketed  as  long  pepper.  The  plant 
is  propagated  by  suckers  which  are  planted  at  a  distance  of 
5  feet  apart  both  ways.  Long  pepper  begins  bearing  during 
the  first  year  and  reaches  a  full  yield  at  3  years  of  age.  There- 
after about  i,ooo  pounds  of  the  product  are  produced  annually 
per  acre.  Long  pepper  is  used  as  a  spice  and  in  native  medi- 
cine. P.  ofUcinarum  of  Java  produces  larger  leaves  and  a  more 
pungent  fruit.  This  product  is  used  for  the  same  purposes 
as  long  pepper  and  is  commonly  known  as  Javanese  long 
pepper.  Ashantee  pepper  (P.  clusii),  a  plant  native  to  western 
Africa,  has  not  been  cultivated  but  the  wild  fruit  is  much 
used  by  the  natives  as  spice. 


GRAINS  OF  PARADISE 

A  herbaceous  plant  belonging  to  the  same  family  with  ginger 
and  native  of  western  tropical  Africa  yields  the  spice  known 
as  grains  of  paradise  (Amomum  melegueta).  The  plant 
attains  a  height  of  5  or  6  feet  and  bears  leafy  stems 
and  spikes  of  showy  flowers  on  trailing  shoots  which  rise 
from  the  rootstocks.  The  seeds  are  used  as  a  substitute  for 
pepper.  The  product  is  also  employed  in  veterinary  medi- 
cine and  for  flavoring  wine,  vinegar,  and  cordials.  Grains 
of  paradise  come  upon  the  market  chiefly  from  the  Gold 
Coast. 


248  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

CLOVES 

The  search  for  cloves  was  one  of  the  important  attractive 
forces  which  drew  the  sailing  vessels  of  Portugal,  Holland, 
and  other  European  countries  to  the  Asiatic  Tropics.  Cloves 
are  obtained  from  a  bushy  tree  12  to  40  feet  high,  native  to 
the  Moluccas.  The  tree  is  now  chiefly  cultivated  in  Ceylon, 
Zanzibar,  Sumatra,  Spice  Islands,  and  West  Indies.  The  tree 
bears  the  scientific  name  Eugenia  caryophyllata.  It  thrives 
only  near  the  sea  and  up  to  an  elevation  of  nearly  1,500  feet. 
The  erect  branches  of  the  tree  give  it  a  conical  form.  The 
flowers  are  borne  at  the  tip  of  the  twigs  in  small  clusters. 
The  cloves  of  commerce  are  the  dried  unopened  flower  buds. 
This  product  was  apparently  first  used  in  China  about  200 
B.  C.  The  Portuguese  controlled  the  trade  in  cloves  up 
to  1600  A.  D.  and  the  Dutch  maintained  control  until  the 
year  1700. 

The  clove  tree  is  propagated  by  seed  planted  in  nurseries 
under  shade.  The  seedlings  are  planted  30  feet  apart  both 
ways.  The  tree  begins  to  bear  at  4  to  5  years  of  age.  In  the 
Molucca  Islands  two  pickings  a  year  are  practiced.  In  har- 
vesting cloves  the  flower  buds  are  gathered  by  hand  or  are 
knocked  off  the  trees  by  means  of  bamboo  poles.  The  buds 
are  then  dried  6  to  8  days  in  the  sun.  Care  is  always  ob- 
served in  preventing  dew  or  rain  from  falling  on  them  during 
the  drying  process  since  moisture  causes  them  to  turn  black. 
The  buds  lose  about  50  per  cent,  in  weight  during  the  process 
of  drying.  Cloves  are  used  as  spice,  as  a  source  of  clove  oil, 
which  is  discussed  under  oils,  in  perfumery,  soaps,  toilet  ar- 
ticles, confectionery,  liqueurs,  medicine,  microscopy,  and 
for  various  other  purposes.  A  clove  plantation  at  maturity 
yields  about  10  pounds  of  dried  cloves  per  tree.  The 
world's  supply  comes  chiefly  from  Zanzibar,  Pemba,  Penang, 
and  Amboyna.  Zanzibar  alone  exports  9,000  tons  of  cloves 
annually. 


SPICES  AND  FLAVORINGS  249 


GINGER 

The  well  known  plant  which  is  a  source  of  commercial 
ginger  (Zingiber  officinale)  is  native  to  southern  Asia,  but 
ginger  is  now  cultivated  throughout  the  Tropics.  It  is  a  peren- 
nial herb  belonging  to  the  family  Scitamineae,  with  leafy  stems 
1 8  to  24  inches  high  and  leaves  6  to  8  inches  long  and  I  inch 
wide.  The  plant  bears  a  terminal  cone  of  handsome  curiously 
shaped  flowers  on  a  separate  stalk  or  occasionally  at  the  end 
of  the  leaf  stalk.  The  flowers  are  yellowish- white,  with  a  black 
and  yellow  spotted  lip.  The  white,  scaly,  aromatic  rootstock 
is  the  source  of  ginger.  These  roots  are  dipped  in  boiling 
water,  peeled,  and  dried  or  may  be  merely  washed  and  dried. 
In  Jamaica  it  is  customary  to  classify  ginger  as  yellow  or 
blue,  referring  to  the  color  of  the  rootstock.  Yellow  ginger 
is  preferred.  A  mountain  variety  of  ginger  is  widely  used 
in  China  in  making  the  familiar  preserved  ginger. 

Ginger  is  propagated  only  by  short  cuttings  of  the  roots. 
It  is  planted  in  rows  24  inches  apart  and  14  inches  in  the  row. 
Ginger  is  commonly  cultivated  by  a  system  of  raised  beds. 
The  roots  are  harvested  about  10  months  from  the  time  of 
planting,  maturity  of  the  roots  being  indicated  by  a  withering 
of  the  leaves.  The  yield  ranges  from  1,000  to  2,500  pounds  of 
dried  ginger  per  acre.  In  drying  the  roots  lose  about  70  per 
cent,  of  their  weight  and  then  contain  about  10  per  cent,  of 
water.  Drying  is  accomplished  in  the  sun  or  by  the  use  of 
artificial  heat. 

Ginger  is  an  important  crop  in  Malabar,  Bombay,  Malaya, 
Sierra  Leone,  Fiji,  Barbados,  and  Santa  Luzia,  but  especially 
in  Jamaica,  which  exports  about  2,000,000  pounds  of  dried 
ginger  annually.  The  United  States  imported  3,500,000  pounds 
of  ginger  in  1914.  Ginger  is  used  as  a  spice,  in  confectionery, 
beverages,  curry,  medicine,  and  as  preserved  ginger.  The 
essential  oil,  called  ginger  oil,  from  the  rootstocks  is  used  in 
the  essence  of  ginger.  Experiments  have  shown  that  ginger 


250  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

will  thrive  well  and  produce  an  excellent  crop  in  Hawaii, 
Porto  Rico,  and  the  Philippines,  but  no  commercial  industry 
in  producing  ginger  has  thus  far  been  developed  in  these 
countries. 

NUTMEG 

The  nutmeg  was  sought  no  less  eagerly  than  cloves  by  the 
early  explorers  of  the  Asiatic  Tropics.  Nutmeg  is  obtained 
from  a  bushy  tree  (Myristica  fragrans),  native  to  the  Moluc- 
cas and  Dutch  East  Indies.  The  tree  attains  a  height  of  25 
to  50  feet  or  sometimes  even  70  feet.  It  bears  shiny,  coriace- 
ous leaves  and  diecious  flowers.  The  female  flowers  are  small 
and  pale  yellow  in  color.  The  handsome  fruit  is  globular 
or  pear-shaped,  orange-yellow  when  ripe,  2^2  inches  long, 
and  pendulous.  The  fruit  is  inclosed  in  a  firm,  acid, 
aromatic  husk,  %  inch  thick,  containing  the  shiny  brown  seed 
or  nutmeg  which  is  surrounded  by  a  beautiful  scarlet 
lace-work  or  aril  which  is  the  source  of  the  mace  of 
commerce. 

A  good  grade  of  nutmeg  in  the  shell  measures  i  inch  in 
diameter.  On  ripening  the  husk  splits  into  two  halves.  The 
fruit  is  then  picked  or  allowed  to  fall,  after  which  the  nut  is 
separated  from  the  mace  and  both  products  are  thoroughly 
dried.  The  shell  is  then  removed  from  the  nut.  The  com- 
mercial nutmeg  is  therefore  the  kernel.  The  nutmeg  tree 
begins  to  bear  at  the  age  of  7  years  and  reaches  its  full  bearing 
power  at  about  30  years  of  age,  at  which  time  each  tree  bears 
from  2,000  to  5,000  nuts  per  year.  The  tree  lives  to  be  100 
years  old  or  more  and  bears  two  crops  annually.  It  is  propa- 
gated by  seed  sown  in  nurseries.  When  the  seedlings  reach 
a  height  of  10  inches  they  are  planted  at  a  distance  of  25  feet 
apart  both  ways.  Most  of  the  male  trees  are  cut  out  so  as  to 
leave  one  male  to  10  female  trees.  Some  shade  is  usually 
provided  for  the  young  trees.  The  yield  of  mace  is  usually 
about  i  pound  per  10  pounds  of  nutmeg. 


SPICES  AND  FLAVORINGS  251 

The  chief  supply  of  nutmeg  and  mace  comes  from  Banda, 
Sumatra,  Minahassa,  Java,  Amboyna,  Penang,  Singapore,  and 
the  West  Indies.  The  production  of  nutmeg  is  increasing 
most  rapidly  in  the  West  Indies.  The  Penang  mace  is  most 
highly  prized,  while  Banda  mace  is  also  fairly  good.  Mace 
from  Batavia  and  Singapore,  however,  is  inferior.  Nutmegs 
are  used  in  spice,  seasoning  sausages  and  other  meat  products, 
for  making  nutmeg  butter,  which  is  discussed  under  oils, 
and  as  a  source  of  nutmeg  oil  which  is  distilled  from  the  nut. 
Mace  is  used  chiefly  as  a  spice,  being  far  more  delicate  than 
nutmeg  and  much  more  highly  prized. 

The  nuts  of  M.  argentea  of  New  Guinea  are  sometimes  used 
to  adulterate  nutmegs  and  are  likewise  largely  employed  in 
the  manufacture  of  soap.  The  calabash  nutmeg  (Monodora 
myristica)  of  western  Africa  produces  seeds  with  a  flavor 
resembling  that  of  nutmeg  and  sometimes  used  for  the  same 
purpose.  Clove  nutmeg  (Agathophyllum  aromaticum)  from 
Madagascar  and  equatorial  Africa  produces  nuts  sometimes 
known  as  Ravensara  nuts,  which  are  used  as  a  substitute  for 
nutmeg. 

TURMERIC 

The  commercial  product  turmeric  is  obtained  from  a  peren- 
nial herb  (Curcuma  longa)  belonging  to  the  same  family  with 
ginger.  The  plant  is  a  native  of  Cochin  China  but  is  now 
propagated  everywhere  in  tropical  Asia.  Turmeric  reaches 
a  height  of  2  or  3  feet  and  bears  long  lanceolate  leaves  in 
tufts  of  6  to  10.  The  white  or  yellow  flowers  are  borne  in 
scaly,  conical  spikes.  The  rootstocks  are  thick,  scaly,  and 
ringed,  and  of  a  bright  orange  color.  In  India,  about  60,000 
acres  are  devoted  to  the  production  of  turmeric,  chiefly  in  Ben- 
gal, Madras,  and  Bombay.  The  most  of  the  turmeric  in  the 
trade  comes  from  Madras  and  Bengal. 

Turmeric  is  propagated  by  division  of  the  rhizomes,  or  roots, 
much  as  in  the  case  of  ginger.  The  plants  are  commonly  cul- 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

tivated  in  ridges  or  raised  beds  and  the  yield  is  about  2,000 
pounds  per  acre. 

In  harvesting  this  crop  the  roots  are  washed,  heated  in  earth- 
enware pots,  and  then  dried  in  the  sun  for  a  week  or  more. 
In  India,  turmeric  roots  are  used  fresh  in  the  preparation  of 
curry.  Dried  turmeric  is  used  in  curry  powder  and  for  color- 
ing pickled  preparations  and  sweet  meats.  Turmeric  is  also 
employed  to  some  extent  as  a  dyestuff.  A  number  of  other 
species  of  the  same  genus,  C.  aromatica,  C.  cautina,  C.  angusti- 
folia,  and  C.  amada,  have  been  used  as  a  source  of  starch, 
spice,  condiment,  dyestuff,  cosmetics,  and  drugs. 

Zedoary  (C.  zedoaria)  was  once  quite  widely  used  as  a 
spice  but  is  now  employed  only  by  the  natives  of  East  Indies 
in  curry  powder.  The  lesser  galangal  (Alpinia  officinarum) , 
belonging  to  the  same  family,  produces  red  roots.  This  plant 
is  cultivated  only  in  China.  It  is  used  in  Russia  in  medicine 
and  for  flavoring  beer,  vinegar,  and  liqueurs.  The  greater 
galangal  (A.  galanga)  is  cultivated  in  Malaya  and  Java.  It 
develops  a  very  large  root  with  a  buff  flesh  which  is  used  in 
curries  and  native  medicine. 


VANILLA 

Vanilla  is  one  of  the  few  important  spice  plants  which 
were  found  indigenous  in  tropical  America.  The  plant  from 
which  practically  all  of  the  commercial  product  is  obtained 
is  (Vanilla  planifolia)  native  of  Mexico  and  Central  America. 
The  vanilla  is  a  large,  climbing  orchid,  with  shiny,  succulent 
leaves  4  to  8  inches  long,  and  racemes  of  large  pale  green 
flowers.  The  plant  was  first  used  as  a  spice  by  the  Aztecs, 
and  is  now  cultivated  throughout  the  Tropics,  ranging  20° 
north  and  south  of  the  Equator.  Vanilla  requires  a  hot,  moist 
climate  and  much  humus  in  the  soil  about  the  roots.  Trees, 
stakes,  or  trellises  for  support  are  distinctly  required  in  the 
cultivation  of  this  plant.  Vanilla  is  propagated  only  by  cut- 


SPICES  AND  FLAVORINGS  253 

tings  about  3  to  4  feet  long  which  are  planted  at  the  base  of 
stakes  9  feet  apart  both  ways  or  at  the  base  of  nurse  trees. 
The  cuttings  are  first  rooted  in  the  nursery. 

Vanilla  plants  may  be  pruned  back  at  the  age  of  18  months 
in  order  to  induce  a  habit  of  branching  or  they  may  be  allowed 
to  climb  to  a  height  of  10*  to  15  feet  and  to  become  pendulous 
from  above.  Like  other  orchids,  the  flowers  of  the  vanilla 
are  naturally  fertilized  by  insects,  but  the  proper  insect  species 
are  not  everywhere  present.  Vanilla  has  been  introduced  into 
many  countries  where  its  natural  insect  visitors  are  not  to  be 
found.  In  practical  vanilla  growing,  hand-pollination  of  the 
flowers  is  therefore  necessary.  For  this  purpose  a  pencil  or 
splinter  of  bamboo  is  commonly  used.  The  flower  is  held  in 
the  left  hand  and  the  lip  pressed  down  so  as  to  expose  the 
pollen  masses  which  are  thereupon  transposed  to  the  stigma 
by  means  of  the  pencil  or  bamboo  stick.  Pollination  is  usually 
carried  on  from  7  a.  m.  to  3  p.  m.  One  man  after  sufficient 
practice  can  fertilize  500  to  2,000  flowers  per  day.  The  period 
from  fertilization  to  mature  pods  ranges  from  4  to  9  months, 
varying  greatly  in  different  countries. 

A  good  vanilla  plant  at  full  bearing  may  put  out  as  many 
as  200  racemes  of  flowers  bearing  altogether  2,000  to  4,000 
flowers.  In  practice,  it  has  been  found  desirable  to  pollinate 
not  more  than  6  to  10  flowers  per  raceme.  The  vanilla  pods 
reach  a  length  of  4  to  6  inches  and  are  harvested  when  the 
tip  begins  to  turn  yellow.  The  curing  of  the  pods  is  the  most 
important  process  in  the  vanilla  industry.  The  pods  are  dipped 
in  water  at  a  temperature  of  195°  F.  for  15  to  30  seconds. 
The  pods  are  then  put  in  an  oven  for  15  minutes,  then  wrapped 
in  blankets  and  exposed  to  the  sun  until  afternoon,  and  then 
stored  in  a  closed  room  over  night.  This  process  is  repeated 
for  6  to  10  days,  at  which  time  the  pods  become  flexible  and 
are  of  a  deep  chocolate-brown  color.  The  fermentation  process 
is  then  considered  as  being  complete.  The  subsequent 
processes  in  curing  vanilla  consist  largely  in  properly  drying 


254  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  pods.  For  this  purpose  the  pods  are  exposed  in  a  ven- 
tilated drying  room  for  a  period  of  I  to  2  months.  Various 
other  processes  have  been  adopted  for  sweating  and  fermenting 
the  vanilla  pods  to  develop  the  proper  aroma. 

The  vanilla  plant  flowers  once  a  year  and  begins  to  bear 
at  the  age  of  3  years.  The  world's  vanilla  crop  amounts  to 
about  600  tons  of  pods  annually.  Vanilla-producing  coun- 
tries at  present  stand  in  the  following  order:  Tahiti,  Mexico, 
Reunion,  Comores,  Madagascar,  Seychelles,  Guadeloupe,  Mau- 
ritius, and  Ceylon.  Vanilla  is  used  chiefly  in  flavoring  choco- 
late liqueurs,  and  confectionery.  The  artificial  vanillin  has 
been  made  synthetically  from  eugenol,  the  characteristic  prin- 
ciple in  oil  of  cloves.  Artificial  vanillin  is  much  cheaper  than 
real  vanilla  but  has  not  succeeded  in  displacing  the  latter  to 
any  great  extent.  Vanillon  (V .  pompona)  of  Mexico  yields 
a  low-grade  vanilla.  This  product  is  much  more  easily  cured 
than  the  commercial  vanilla  and  the  pods  do  not  show  a  ten- 
dency to  split  during  the  process  of  curing.  The  flowers  are 
larger  and  the  pods  considerably  thicker. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

PERFUMES 

As  in  the  case  of  spices  and  flavorings,  so  in  the  discussion 
of  perfumes  it  will  be  desirable  merely  to  consider  some  of 
the  more  important  perfumes  which  are  produced  largely  or 
exclusively  in  the  Tropics.  Several  hundred  species  of  plants 
have  been  used  as  sources  of  perfume.  Perfumes  for  the  most 
part  are  essential  oils  and  some  of  these  oils  which  have  been 
used  for  other  purposes  as  well  as  for  perfume  will  be  dis- 
cussed in  the  following  chapter  under  essential  oils. 

Commercial  perfumes  in  the  form  in  which  they  are  placed 
on  the  retail  market  are  almost  invariably  of  mixed  composi- 
tion. They  contain  various  essential  oils  as  a  basis  or  body 
of  the  perfume  to  which  a  minute  quantity  of  some  expensive 
essential  oil  is  added,  thus  giving  the  trade  name  to  the  oil 
mixture.  Many  synthetic  products  have  been  prepared  and 
these  products  enter  largely  into  the  composition  of  ordinary 
perfumes. 

YLANG-YLANG 

One  of  the  most  delicate  and  evanescent  perfumes  known 
in  the  whole  perfume  industry  is  ylang-ylang,  which  is  derived 
from  the  flowers  of  Cananga  odorata,  a  rapid-growing  tree  na- 
tive to  the  Philippine  Islands,  Java,  and  the  other  East  Indies 
as  well  as  to  southern  Asia.  The  tree  is  a  graceful  orna- 
mental and  attains  a  height  of  60  to  75  feet.  The  finest  ylang- 
ylang  oil  comes  from  Manila.  Handsome  greenish-yellow 
flowers  appear  every  month.  Petals  from  fully  opened  flowers 
in  May  and  June  yield  the  highest  grade  of  oil.  In  preparing 

255 


256  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  oil  the  petals  are  carefully  distilled.  It  has  been  found 
from  experience  with  this  material  that  300  to  350  pounds  of 
flowers  will  yield  I  pound  of  oil.  Ylang-ylang  oil  is  easily 
damaged  to  a  serious  extent  by  exposure  to  light  and  ahr. 
It  is  also  extremely  volatile  and  will  readily  escape  except 
from  very  tightly-stoppered  bottles.  Manila  exports  about 
4,500  pounds  of  ylang-ylang  oil  annually.  The  perfume  which 
is  sold  under  the  name  ylang-ylang  commonly  contains  cologne 
water,  essence  of  rose,  tincture  of  vanilla,  tincture  of  tolu, 
and  oil  of  neroli,  to  which  a  minute  quantity  of  ylang-ylang 
oil  is  added.  An  excellent  quality  of  this  oil  is  produced  in 
Reunion,  where  the  yield  is  reported  as  being  frequently  as 
high  as  2  per  cent,  of  the  flower  petals  by  weight.  Good 
samples  of  ylang-ylang  oil  have  also  been  received  from  the 
Comoro  Islands,  while  the  oil  received  from  Mauritius  is  of 
inferior  aroma.  Madagascar  has  also  given  considerable  atten- 
tion to  the  production  of  this  oil. 


FRANKINCENSE 

The  term  frankincense  is  applied  to  various  resins  which 
yield  a  strong  fragrance  in  burning.  Olibanum,  a  resin  exud- 
ing from  Boswellia  serrata  and  other  species  of  this  tree  in 
India  and  Africa,  is  also  known  as  frankincense.  Olibanum 
occurs  as  clear  yellow  drops  of  resin  on  the  bark  of  these 
trees  and  is  used  for  burning  in  religious  celebrations  and  for 
scenting  pastilles  and  in  fumigating  powders.  The  resins  in 
certain  species  of  fir  and  croton  have  also  been  used  for  the 
same  purpose  under  the  name  frankincense. 

TONKA  BEAN 

The  tonka  bean  comes  from  a  large  leguminous  tree  (Dip- 
teryx  odorata)  which  bears  handsome  violet-colored  flowers 
and  long  fibrous  pods  containing  the  black  bean.  The  tree 


PERFUMES  257 

occurs  in  wide  distribution  in  South  America.  Venezuela  is 
the  source  of  nearly  all  the  tonka  beans  of  commerce.  The 
pods  are  collected  and  dried,  after  which  the  beans  are  removed 
and  soaked  in  65  per  cent,  alcohol  for  6  to  8  hours.  The  beans 
are  then  dried  again.  In  the  process  of  drying  the  beans 
become  frosted  or  coated  upon  the  outside  by  the  deposition 
of  the  crystalline  volatile  resin  on  the  surface  of  the  bean. 
For  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  amount  of  frosting  on 
the  surface  of  the  beans  sugar  is  added  to  the  alcohol.  Occa- 
sionally, rum  is  employed  for  partly  saturating  the  beans 
before  they  are  finally  dried  for  the  market.  The  tonka  bean 
is  used  for  scenting  tobacco  and  snuff  and  in  the  preparation 
of  fumigating  powders,  perfumery,  sachet  powders,  and  in 
confectionery  as  a  substitute  for  vanilla.  About  60,000  pounds 
of  tonka  beans  are  exported  annually  from  Venezuela. 


CASSIE 

Cassie  is  the  name  which  has  been  given  to  the  perfume 
obtained  from  a  leguminous  shrub,  Acacia  farnesiana,  origi- 
nally native  to  West  Indies  but  now  occurring  throughout  the 
Tropics.  In  many  tropical  countries  the  shrub  becomes  an  an- 
noyance or  veritable  pest  on  account  of  its  progressive  habit 
of  spreading.  This  is  notably  true  in  Hawaii  and  Texas.  The 
cassie  is  cultivated  as  a  source  of  perfume,  particularly  in 
France,  India,  and  Algeria.  The  shrub  attains  a  height  of  4 
to  20  feet  and  bears  graceful  bi-pinnate  leaves  and  small  globu- 
lar heads  of  yellow  flowers.  The  harvesting  of  the  flowers  is 
rendered  somewhat  difficult  by  the  dense  branching  of  the 
bushes  and  the  numerous  spines  on  the  branches.  In  Hawaii, 
this  bush  is  known  as  klu.  In  India  2  pounds  of  flowers  per 
tree  is  considered  a  satisfactory  yield.  In  Algeria,  1,000 
pounds  of  flowers  per  acre  are  commonly  obtained,  while  in 
France,  under  cultivation,  a  yield  of  5,000  pounds  of  flowers 
per  acre  has  been  secured.  The  flowers  are  best  when  picked 


258  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

in  the  early  morning.  The  oil  is  obtained  by  the  process  of 
enfleurage,  as  is  the  case  with  many  of  the  more  delicate 
perfumes.  This  process  consists  essentially  in  dissolving  the 
essential  oil  in  a  fixed  oil  like  cocoabutter  or  coconut  oil, 
after  which  the  essential  perfumery  oil  is  dissolved  out  in 
alcohol.  Cassie  has  been  widely  used  as  a  basis  of  sachet  pow- 
der. The  flowers  were  at  one  time  used  in  Hawaii  to  make 
a  perfume  which  was  sold  under  the  name  Pua  Hawaii.  The 
aroma  of  the  essential  oil  of  the  flowers  of  this  bush  is  ex- 
tremely delicate,  in  some  cases  being  nearly  equal  to  that  of 
ylang-ylang  oil.  The  dried  flowers  are  worth  about  50  to  60 
cents  per  pound.  In  France  and  Algeria,  the  wholesale  price 
of  the  flowers  is  often  not  above  25  cents  per  pound. 

MYRRH 

This  well  known  perfume  of  classic  antiquity  is  obtained 
from  Balsamodendron  myrrha,  a  tree  which  is  native  to  the 
Red  Sea  region.  The  tree  exudes  a  gum-resin  which  has 
been  widely  used  in  the  Orient  as  perfume  and  in  Europe  and 
the  United  States  as  a  tooth  tincture  for  hardening  the  gums. 
The  resin  also  yields  2  to  10  per  cent,  of  the  essential  oil  of 
myrrh. 

BENZOIN 

A  gum-resin  known  as  benzoin  exudes  from  the  trunk  of 
the  tree  (Styrax  benzoin),  native  to  Siam,  Sumatra,  and  tropi- 
cal Asia.  Ordinarily,  the  resin  is  harvested  by  tapping  the 
tree.  In  the  tapping  wound  a  resin  exudes  like  pine  resin. 
Benzoin  comes  upon  the  market  in  large  yellow  or  brown  lumps 
and  is  chiefly  used  in  scenting  toilet  waters  and  soaps. 

OIL  OF  NEROLI 

The  true  oil  of  neroli  is  distilled  from  flowers  of  the  bitter 
orange  and  is  produced  chiefly  in  southern  France,  but  also  to 


PERFUMES  259 

a  less  extent  in  various  tropical  countries,  particularly  Al- 
geria, Tunis,  and  the  West  Indies,  where  the  industry  has 
recently  become  established.  In  France,  it  has  been  found 
that  500  pounds  of  the  flowers  of  the  bitter  orange  yield  I 
pound  of  oil.  The  oil  of  neroli  is  chiefly  used  in  perfume 
blends.  The  difficulty  of  securing  sufficient  labor  appears  to 
be  the  chief  reason  why  the  production  of  neroli  oil  in  Al- 
geria and  Tunis  has  not  been  more  extensive.  The  perfume 
of  the  flower  of  these  countries  is  said  to  be  extremely  deli- 
cate. When  instead  of  the  flowers  the  leaves,  small  twigs, 
and  young  fruit  of  the  sour  orange  are  distilled,  a  perfume 
oil  is  obtained  which  comes  upon  the  market  under  the  name 
petit-grain  oil. 

FRANGIPANI 

This  term  is  ordinarily  used  for  a  compound  perfume  pre- 
pared according  to  a  formula  of  the  Marquis  Frangipani  and 
containing  sandalwood  oil,  musk,  sage,  orris  root,  neroli  oil, 
and  various  other  constituents.  The  name  has  also  been  given 
to  the  essential  oil  distilled  from  the  red,  white,  and  yellow 
flowered  temple  trees  (Plumeria  rubra  and  P.  acutifolia), 
which  are  native  to  Central  America  and  the  West  Indies, 
but  are  now  widely  cultivated  about  Buddhist  temples  in  Cey- 
lon, China,  and  Japan,  and  also  in  Japanese  cemeteries.  Fran- 
gipani has  also  been  used  as  the  trade  name  for  certain  sachet 
powders  prepared  partly  from  cassie  flowers. 


BERGAMOT 

Citrus  bergamia,  a  well  known  species  of  the  citrus  tribe, 
yields  an  oil  which  comes  upon  the  market  under  the  name 
bergamot.  This  oil  is  produced  chiefly  in  Italy,  more  espe- 
cially in  the  province  of  Calabria.  The  oil  is  expressed  from 
the  fresh  rind  of  the  fruit  by  special  machinery.  For  this 
purpose  the  fruit  is  gathered  in  November  and  December.  The 


260  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

oil  is  greenish  and  contains  some  chlorophyll.  It  is  used  in 
scenting  fine  toilet  soaps  and  in  certain  mixed  perfumes.  The 
essence  of  bergamot  commonly  contains  8  per  cent,  of  the  oil 
of  bergamot  per  5  quarts  of  alcohol.  The  United  States 
imports  about  65,000  pounds  of  bergamot  oil  annually. 


CHAMPACA  OIL 

A  large  handsome  tree  (Michelia  champaca),  native  of 
Java,  India,  and  other  parts  of  the  Oriental  Tropics,  yields  an 
oil  which  bears  the  trade  name  Champaca  oil.  The  tree  pro- 
duces conspicuous  yellow  flowers  and  the  oil  is  distilled  from 
these  flowers.  In  Java,  Champaca  oil  is  of  a  peculiarly  de- 
licious fragrance  and  of  greater  value  even  than  ylang- 
ylang  oil. 

M.  longifolia,  a  closely  related  species,  with  white  flowers, 
also  yields  a  perfume  oil  by  distillation  of  the  flowers.  In 
Manila  the  flowers  of  this  species  yield  about  0.2  per  cent,  of 
oil.  Champaca  wood  oil  is  obtained  from  a  different  tree 
(Bulnesia  sarmienti).  The  oil  is  distilled,  as  the  term  indi- 
cates, from  the  wood.  This  oil  is  solid  at  ordinary  tempera- 
tures and  emits  an  odor  of  tea  and  violets.  It  is  quite  widely 
used  as  perfumery.  The  chief  source  of  the  oil  is  Paraguay. 


GERANIUM  OIL 

The  perfume  oils  which  are  included  under  the  term  gera- 
nium oil  are  derived  by  distillation  of  the  leaves  and  stems  of 
Pelargonium  capitatum  and  other  species  of  geranium.  The 
oil  thus  obtained  is  widely  used  as  a  substitute  for  the  essence 
of  rose  and  Palmarosa  oil.  The  geranium  has  been  widely  cul- 
tivated as  a  source  of  oil  in  southern  France  and  Spain  and 
particularly  in  Algeria,  where  large  plantations  are  maintained 
for  this  purpose.  The  plant  is  propagated  by  cuttings,  which 
in  Algeria  are  planted  in  the  fall.  The  plants  begin  to  yield 


PERFUMES  261 

during  the  following  year  and  a  plantation  persists  in  yield- 
ing condition  for  7  or  8  years.  The  stems  of  the  geranium 
under  these  cultivated  conditions  attain  a  thickness  of  I  inch. 
The  yield  varies  greatly,  according  to  conditions.  It  has  been 
found  that  the  first  cutting  of  leaves  yields  about  i  pound  of 
oil  per  1,000  pounds  of  leaves,  while  the  second  cutting  is 
nearly  twice  as  rich  in  percentage  of  oil.  The  production  of 
geranium  oil  in  Algeria  is  perhaps  larger  than  that  of  any 
other  country.  Algerian  oil  stands  next  to  French  oil  in  value. 
In  Algeria  the  plants  attain  a  height  of  2.^/2.  feet  and  3  crops 
of  leaves  are  harvested  annually.  It  appears  that  the  oil 
obtained  from  plants  grown  on  dry  hillsides  is  of  superior 
value. 

VETIVER 

A  perennial  grass  known  to  botanists  as  Vetvuera  sizanoides 
and  occurring  in  Mysore,  Bengal,  and  Burma  in  moist,  heavy 
soil  along  river  banks,  yields  from  its  roots  by  distillation  the 
vetiver  oil  which  is  used  as  a  basis  of  perfume.  The  leaves 
of  this  grass  are  practically  without  odor  and  are  used  for 
thatching  and  other  purposes.  The  roots,  however,  when 
washed  and  dried  in  the  sun  yield  by  a  slow  process  of  distil- 
lation a  viscous  oil  less  volatile  than  the  most  essential  oils. 
It  is  used  in  perfumery  largely  on  account  of  its  fixing  proper- 
ties, since  it  thereby  prevents  other  essential  oils  from  vola- 
tilizing too  rapidly. 

OTTO  OF  ROSE 

The  familiar  perfume  known  as  otto  of  rose  has  been  here- 
tofore obtained  largely  from  Bulgaria,  which  country  seems 
to  be  best  adapted  to  the  production  of  high-grade  roses 
for  this  specific  purpose.  The  rose  commonly  cultivated  in 
Bulgaria  as  a  source  of  perfume  is  Rosa  damascena.  R.  alba 
has  also  been  grown  for  the  same  purpose  but  it  yields  an  otto 
of  quite  inferior  quality.  Outside  of  Bulgaria  otto  of  rose  is 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

produced  in  other  countries  of  southern  Europe  and  in  Persia 
and  Asia  Minor.  Otto  of  rose  is  distilled  from  rose  petals. 
The  ordinary  still  used  for  this  purpose  has  a  capacity  of 
about  28  gallons.  In  the  long  continued  experience  which 
Bulgaria  has  had  in  the  production  of  this  perfume  it  has  been 
found  that  from  2,500  to  2,600  pounds  of  flowers  are  required 
to  produce  I  pound  of  the  perfume.  Experiments  with  modern 
steam  stills  seem  to  give  less  satisfactory  results  than  the  primi- 
tive stills  which  have  long  been  in  use  in  Bulgaria. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
OILS 

THE  oils  of  vegetable  origin  are  obtained  from  seeds,  nuts, 
and  beans,  as  well  as  from  the  leaves,  fruit,  trunk,  and  roots 
of  various  plants.  These  oils  are  commonly  classified  in  two 
groups — fixed  oils  and  essential  oils.  The  fixed  oils  do  not 
volatilize  or  evaporate  upon  exposure  to  air.  The  group  of 
fixed  oils  includes  drying  oils,  semi-drying  oils,  nondrying  oils, 
and  vegetable  fats.  Drying  oils  are  characterized  by  their 
power  to  absorb  oxygen  and  dry  into  an  elastic  film.  They 
are  therefore  well  adapted  for  utilization  in  paints  and  var- 
nishes. Semi-drying  oils  are  intermediate  in  character  be- 
tween drying  oils  and  nondrying  oils.  They  absorb  oxygen 
slowly  and  only  to  a  limited  extent.  Nondrying  oils  do  not 
solidify  on  exposure  to  the  air  at  ordinary  temperatures. 
Vegetable  fats  are  solid  at  ordinary  air  temperatures,  resem- 
bling in  this  respect  butter  or  tallow.  Essential  oils,  as  con- 
trasted with  this  whole  group  of  fixed  oils,  are  volatile  or 
evaporate  on  exposure  to  air.  They  carry  the  characteristic 
flavor  or  aroma  of  the  plant  from  which  they  are  derived. 
Essential  oils  are  obtained  chiefly  by  distillation  as  contrasted 
with  fixed  oils  which  are  commonly  extracted  by  pressure  or 
chemical  solvents.  In  the  preparation  of  essential  oils  the 
material  in  which  they  are  contained  is  finely  ground,  placed 
in  a  copper  still,  and  boiled.  In  the  process  of  boiling  the 
essential  oil  is  carried  over  into  a  condenser  along  with  the 
steam.  Lemon  oil  and  lime  oil  may  be  obtained  by  pricking 
the  skin  of  the  fruit  and  applying  gentle  pressure.  Distilled 
lemon  oil  is  considered  to  be  of  an  inferior  grade.  Essential 

263 


264  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

oils  which  are  used  in  perfumes  or  for  scenting  toilet  articles 
are  obtained,  as  already  indicated  in  discussing  perfumes,  by 
the  process  of  enfleurage.  This  process  consists  merely  in 
saturating  the  material  with  warm  fat  and  dissolving  out  the 
essential  oil  by  means  of  alcohol.  The  United  States  imports 
essential  oils  to  the  value  of  more  than  $4,000,000  per  year. 
In  the  following  discussion  the  oils  are  grouped  together  ac- 
cording to  their  physical  properties  under  drying  oils,  semi- 
drying  oils,  nondrying  oils,  vegetable  fats,  and  essential  oils. 

DRYING  OILS 

Perhaps  the  most  important  and  most  widely  used  drying 
oil  is  Chinawood  oil,  which  is  obtained  from  the  nuts  of  a 
number  of  species  of  Aleurites.  This  genus  includes  at  least 
six  species  of  trees,  all  of  which  produce  oil-bearing  nuts.  The 
oil  obtained  from  these  trees  has  long  been  favorably  known 
for  use  in  various  trades  and  is  destined  to  become  of  still 
greater  importance.  The  cultivation  of  Chinawood  oil  trees 
is  extremely  simple.  They  require  only  a  moderate  amount  of 
rainfall  and  appear  to  thrive  in  almost  any  soil.  In  fact,  it 
has  been  generally  observed  that  these  trees  may  be  success- 
fully grown  on  land  which  is  too  rough  or  otherwise  unsuited 
for  ordinary  agriculture.  The  trees  begin  bearing  from  seed 
within  3  to  5  years. 

In  China,  there  are  two  distinct  species  of  economic  im- 
portance. The  wood  oil  tree  (A.  montana)  grows  chiefly  in 
the  subtropical  parts  of  southeastern  China.  It  appears  to 
require  a  warmer  climate  and  more  rainfall  than  the  tung  oil 
tree  (A.  fordii).  The  wood  oil  tree  in  size  and  habit  of  growth 
and  general  appearance  resembles  the  tung  oil  tree.  The 
flowers  are  smaller  and  less  conspicuous.  The  amount  of  oil 
exported  from  this  tree  is  much  less  than  the  export  of  tung 
oil.  The  tung  oil  tree  is  much  more  widely  distributed  than 
the  wood  oil  tree  and  furnishes  at  least  nine-tenths  of  the 


CHINAWOOD  OIL  NUT 


OILS  265 

wood  oil  used  in  China  and  exported  from  China  to  other 
countries.  This  is  the  tree  which,  according  to  all  observers, 
recommends  itself  for  general  cultivation  in  other  countries. 
It  grows  rapidly,  seldom  attains  a  height  of  more  than  30 
feet,  and  develops  a  much  branched,  rounded  head.  The 
flowers  appear  before  the  leaves  and  are  extremely  ornamen- 
tal. The  fruit  ordinarily  ripens  in  September  and  October. 
Each  nut  contains  from  2  to  $  seeds.  The  yield  per  tree 
varies  from  I  to  5  bushels  or  more.  Until  recently  there  have 
been  no  cultivated  plantations  of  this  tree  in  China.  At  present 
a  renewed  interest  is  shown  in  the  planting  of  this  tree. 

In  China  the  oil  from  both  common  species  of  Aleurites 
is  used  for  a  great  number  of  purposes.  In  the  first  place, 
the  oil  is  the  chief  paint  oil  of  the  country  and  is  widely 
employed  as  a  varnish  and  water-proofing  material.  For  this 
purpose  it  is  not  mixed  with  other  materials  but  is  used  as 
such  for  oiling  boats,  houses,  and  all  kinds  of  woodwork.  The 
oil  has  been  shown  to  possess  great  endurance  toward  the 
action  of  salt  water  and  toward  weathering.  From  Hankow 
the  annual  export  of  tung  oil  is  15,000  tons  or  more.  Cor- 
responding quantities  are  exported  from  Wuchow. 

In  Europe  and  America,  tung  oil  is  largely  used  by  paint 
and  varnish  makers  and  also  by  artists.  Tung  oil  dries  the 
most  quickly  of  all  known  vegetable  oils.  It  does  not,  how- 
ever, produce  so  clear,  transparent,  and  smooth  a  film  as  lin- 
seed oil.  The  difficulties  in  the  technical  use  of  the  oil, 
however,  have  been  largely  overcome.  At  present  tung  oil  is 
largely  employed  in  paint  driers  as  well  as  in  varnishes. 

The  related  tree  (A.  cordata),  which  grows  quite  widely  at 
least  in  Japan,  furnishes  an  oil  commonly  known  as  Japanese 
wood  oil  which  has  been  used  locally  in  Japan  but  thus  far 
has  not  entered  widely  into  international  commerce.  In  gen- 
eral appearance  this  tree  resembles  A.  montana  of  China.  The 
fruit  is  more  nearly  3-lobed,  often  tapering  toward  the  point, 
and  contains  3  to  5  smooth,  compressed  seeds. 


266  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

While  there  are  differences  in  the  physical  properties  of 
oils  obtained  from  these  trees,  there  has  been  much  confusion 
in  naming  the  trees  and  in  properly  labeling  the  oils  in  the 
past.  Commonly,  the  term  Chinawood  oil,  tung  oil,  nut  oil, 
and  various  other  phrases  have  been  applied  indifferently  to 
the  oil  coming  from  any  one  of  the  three  already  mentioned 
species  of  Aleurites.  These  trees  are  native  of  China,  Japan, 
Tonkin  and  Annam.  They  have  been  introduced,  however,  into 
Madagascar  and  the  Southern  States  in  this  country.  It  has 
been  found  that  the  tung  oil  tree  A.  fordii  will  thrive  in  Flor- 
ida, South  Carolina,  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Georgia, 
Texas,  and  California.  It  will  withstand  temperatures  in 
winter  as  low  as  14°  F.  and  it  has  been  found  to  yield  in  these 
States  a  satisfactory  quantity  of  nuts  which  produce  an  oil 
of  good  quality.  Since  the  United  States  imports  about  5,000,- 
ooo  gallons  a  year  of  Chinawood  oil,  it  would  seem  desirable 
to  attempt  the  commercial  growing  of  the  wood  oil  tree  on 
some  of  the  cheap  and  rough  lands  of  the  Southern  States. 

The  seeds  of  the  tung  oil  tree  contain  about  53  per  cent,  of 
oil  and  yield  40  per  cent,  of  oil  by  pressure.  Cold  pressed  oil 
is  light  yellow  in  color,  while  hot  pressed  oil  is  dark  brown. 
The  specific  gravity  of  tung  oil  is  0.94  and  the  iodin  number 
166.7. 

The  present  world's  production  of  Chinawood  oil  is  about 
30,000  tons  a  year.  It  should  be  remembered  that  China 
probably  uses  twice  as  much  oil  as  is  exported  from  that 
country.  The  trees  are  commonly  planted  20  feet  apart  both 
ways  and  may  be  expected  to  bear  a  profitable  yield  at  5  years 
of  age.  In  fact,  in  Florida,  some  of  the  trees  have  begun 
bearing  at  the  age  of  2  years. 

Candlenut  oil  is  a  well  known  paint  and  varnish  oil,  ob- 
tained from  the  seeds  of  A.  triloba,  also  known  as  A.  moluc- 
cana.  Candlenut  oil  has  been  known  by  a  considerable  variety 
of  names  in  the  trade,  such  as  country  walnut  oil,  kekune  oil, 
artists'  oil,  Bankul  oil,  Eboc  oil,  Spanish  walnut  oil,  Belgaum 


OILS  267 

oil,  and  in  Hawaii  as  kukui  oil.  The  candlenut  tree  is  generally 
distributed  throughout  Polynesia,  India,  the  Philippines,  Java, 
Australia,  and  the  Pacific  Islands,  including  Hawaii.  It  has 
also  been  introduced  into  the  West  Indies,  Brazil,  Florida, 
and  elsewhere.  The  tree  has  wide-spreading  branches,  attains 
a  height  of  40  to  60  feet  and  is  characterized  by  large,  irregu- 
larly lobed  leaves  of  a  pale  green  color  and  nuts  about  2  inches 
in  diameter  containing  I  or  2  seeds. 

Candlenut  oil  has  been  used  for  a  variety  of  purposes.  The 
Hawaiians  at  one  time  strung  the  nuts  together  on  sticks  and 
used  them  for  lighting  their  houses.  The  natural  candles 
thus  produced  gave  rise  to  the  name  candlenut.  Candlenut 
oil  is  suitable  for  use  in  the  manufacture  of  soft  soap,  in  the 
preparation  of  varnishes,  paints,  and  linoleum,  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  oil  colors  and  lacquers,  and  for  other  similar  purposes. 
The  oil  dries  as  quickly  as  linseed  oil  and  appears  to  have 
about  an  equal  value.  Candlenut  oil  has  been  widely  used 
in  China  for  oiling  paper  used  in  Chinese  umbrellas  and  for 
other  purposes.  The  oil  is  also  a  good  wood  preservative  and 
has  been  used  on  the  hulls  of  sailing  vessels  and  on  buildings. 
For  this  purpose  it  has  been  shown  to  remain  almost  intact 
for  15  to  20  years. 

During  the  decade  1840  to  1850  Hawaii  exported  about 
10,000  gallons  of  candlenut  oil  annually.  The  industry  was 
later  allowed  to  lapse.  A  company  has  recently  been  or- 
ganized in  Honolulu  to  produce  candlenut  or  kukui  oil  on  a 
commercial  scale.  The  study  of  this  oil  at  the  Hawaii  Ex- 
periment Station  indicated  that  there  are  about  15,000  acres 
of  candlenut  trees  in  the  Territory  and  that  the  annual  yield 
of  nuts  is  7  to  8  tons  per  acre.  It  was  found  that  one  laborer 
could  pick  up  500  Ibs.  of  nuts  per  day  in  an  ordinary  kukui 
forest.  The  average  oil  content  of  the  kernel  of  the  kukui  nut 
is  65  per  cent.  Since  the  kernel  equals  30  per  cent,  of  the 
weight  of  the  nut  the  oil  constitutes  19.5  per  cent,  of  the  weight 
of  the  whole  nut,  including  the  shell.  About  90  per  cent,  of 


268  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  total  oil  content  is  recoverable  by  pressure.  At  this  rate 
100  pounds  of  nuts  will  yield  17.5  pounds  of  oil.  These  figures 
were  later  verified  in  a  commercial  test  on  a  rather  large  scale. 

The  oil  cake  left  as  a  residue  from  the  press  is  a  very  valu- 
able fertilizer.  The  material  contains  53.75  per  cent,  protein, 
2.77  per  cent,  potash,  and  2.79  per  cent,  phosphoric  acid.  With- 
out further  treatment  the  press  cake  cannot  be  used  as  a 
cattle  feed  for  the  reason  that  it  exercises  a  poisonous  effect. 

The  kernel  of  the  candlenut  contains  an  active  purgative 
principle  and  is  poisonous  as  human  food.  After  roasting, 
however,  it  is  used  by  the  Hawaiians  as  a  delicacy  in  connection 
with  their  native  feasts.  Even  under  such  conditions,  however, 
it  can  be  eaten  only  in  small  quantities.  On  account  of  the 
fact  that  Chinawood  oil  and  candlenut  oil,  as  well  as  other 
drying  oils,  are  quite  commonly  mixed  in  order  to  get  the  best 
properties  for  use  in  paints  and  varnishes,  it  has  been  thought 
worth  while  to  attempt  a  natural  blend  of  the  physical  proper- 
ties of  Chinawood  oil  and  candlenut  oil  through  the  production 
of  hybrids  between  these  trees.  In  recent  hybridization  experi- 
ments at  the  Hawaii  Experiment  Station,  about  120  nuts  were 
obtained  by  cross-pollination  between  the  Chinawood  oil  and 
candlenut  oil  trees.  These  nuts  will  be  planted  in  order  to 
determine  whether  the  oil  produced  from  the  hybrid  trees  has 
any  advantage  over  either  of  the  parent  trees. 

Perilla  oil,  obtained  from  P.  ocynwides,  and  native  of  East 
Indies,  China,  and  Japan,  constitutes  about  35  per  cent,  of  the 
seed  of  that  plant.  Seeds  are  sown  in  April  and  the  plant 
ripens  another  crop  of  seed  in  October.  Perilla  oil  dries  more 
slowly  than  linseed  oil.  In  Japan,  the  oil  is  commonly  mixed 
with  cheap  lacquer.  Perilla  oil  has  also  been  used  in  ex- 
tracting Japan  wax,  and  as  an  edible  oil,  particularly  in  Man- 
churia. 

Stillingia  oil  is  obtained  from  the  seeds  of  a  tree  S.  sebifera, 
which  occurs  wild  in  Formosa  and  is  quite  largely  cultivated  in 
China.  The  pulp  surrounding  the  seeds  yields  Chinese  vege- 


OILS  269 

table  tallow.  The  seeds  contain  20  per  cent,  of  a  good  drying 
oil  which  absorbs  12  per  cent,  of  oxygen  within  8  days.  The 
oil  is  used  for  lighting  purposes  in  China  and  is  not  exported 
except  in  small  quantities. 

Hemp-seed  oil  is  obtained  by  pressure  from  the  seed  of  the 
common  hemp  (Cannabis  sativa).  Hemp  is  grown  for  this 
purpose  in  Algeria,  India,  and  Formosa,  as  well  as  in  parts 
of  Europe  and  the  United  States.  Seeds  contain  30  per  cent, 
of  oil.  Hemp-seed  oil  is  light  green  or  greenish-yellow  in 
color.  It  is  chiefly  used  as  a  paint  or  varnish  oil  but  also  in 
making  green  soft  soaps.  As  a  drying  oil  it  possesses  fair 
quality.  Large  quantities  of  hemp-seed  oil  are  produced  in 
Europe  and  still  larger  quantities  are  imported  from  China. 

Gynocardia  oil  is  derived  from  the  seed  of  a  large  tree 
(G.  odorata),  native  of  Assam  and  Sikkim.  The  seeds  yield 
about  19  per  cent,  of  a  good  quality  of  drying  oil.  For  many 
years  the  seeds  of  this  tree  were  also  supposed  to  be  the  source 
of  Chaulmoogra  oil,  but  this  oil  is  now  known  to  be  derived 
from  another  source. 

Safflower  oil  is  obtained  from  the  seed  of  the  safflower 
'(Carthamus  tinctorius).  The  safflower  is  still  quite  generally 
cultivated  in  India,  Egypt,  Caucasus,  and  Turkestan.  Saf- 
flower seeds  yield  17  per  cent,  of  oil  by  pressure.  The  actual 
percentage  of  oil  which  can  be  extracted  by  gasoline  is  about 
28.  Safflower  oil  is  used  for  culinary  purposes  in  India  and 
also  for  paint  and  soap  manufacture  and  in  the  preservation  of 
leather  and  ropes.  It  has  been  found  that  safflower  oil  boiled 
slowly  for  4  hours  makes  an  excellent  waterproofing  material. 
In  the  Bombay  Presidency,  safflower  is  the  most  important 
oil-seed  crop.  The  area  devoted  to  the  plant  has  been  some- 
what restricted  since  the  flowers  are  no  longer  used  so  much 
as  a  source  of  dye.  The  oil  obtained  by  cold  pressure  is  pale 
yellow.  It  has  a  good  drying  quality  but  cannot  entirely  re- 
place linseed  oil.  The  area  planted  to  safflower  in  the  Bombay 
Presidency  is  about  600,000  acres.  Quite  extensive  plantings 


270  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

are  also  being  established  in  Egypt,  Nyasaland,  and  other 
tropical  countries. 

Poppy  seed  oil,  as  the  name  indicates,  is  derived  from  the 
seed  of  the  poppy  (Pap aver  somniferum).  This  industry  is 
most  largely  developed  in  Egypt,  south  Russia,  India,  and 
Persia.  The  seeds  yield  about  45  per  cent,  of  oil.  The  largest 
poppy  seed  oil  mills  are  located  in  Marseilles,  France.  The 
oil  is  white  if  expressed  cold,  but  red  and  of  less  value  if 
expressed  at  higher  temperatures.  Poppy  seed  oil  is  used 
chiefly  as  a  salad  oil  (sometimes  mixed  with  sesame  oil)  and 
also  as  a  fine  artist's  oil.  France  imports  60,000,000  pounds 
of  poppy  seed  annually  for  oil  purposes. 

Manihot  oil  is  obtained  from  the  seeds  of  the  Ceara  rubber 
tree  (M.  glaziovii).  The  seeds  yield  10  per  cent,  of  an  oil 
which  is  yellowish-green  in  color,  of  a  bitter  flavor,  and  of  the 
odor  of  olive  oil.  The  oil  dries  in  about  a  week  and  may  be 
used  as  a  substitute  for  linseed  oil. 

Niger  seed  oil  is  derived  from  the  seed  of  Guizotia  oleifera, 
a  plant  native  to  Abyssinia  and  also  grown  in  the  East  Indies, 
West  Indies,  and  west  Africa.  The  seeds  contain  40  per 
cent,  of  oil  of  a  yellow  color  and  nutty  flavor.  It  is  used 
chiefly  as  an  edible  oil  but  the  poorer  grades  are  employed  in 
the  manufacture  of  soap  and  for  this  purpose  mixed  with 
rape-seed  oil. 

Para  seed  oil  is  obtained  by  pressure  from  the  seeds  of  the 
Para  rubber  tree  (Hevea  brasiliensis).  These  seeds  contain  25 
to  40  per  cent,  of  oil.  The  oil  is  of  a  yellow  color  and  dries 
into  a  clear  film.  The  industry  may  assume  considerable  pro- 
portions when  the  active  demand  for  seed  for  planting  pur- 
poses ceases.  The  oil  dries  less  rapidly  than  linseed  oil  and 
is  considered  inferior  to  linseed  oil  for  industrial  purposes. 
The  seed  cake  obtained  as  a  residue  from  the  oil  press  has 
been  used  as  a  cattle  food  in  Europe,  India,  and  Ceylon.  For 
this  purpose  the  cake  appears  to  have  considerable  value. 

Argemone  oil  is  derived  from  the  seeds  of  the  Mexican 


OILS  271 

poppy  (A.  mexicana).  This  plant  is  quite  widely  grown  in 
the  East  Indies,  where  the  oil.  from  the  seed  is  used  as  a  salad 
oil  and  also  for  illuminating  and  lubricating  purposes.  In  the 
West  Indies  and  Mexico  it  is  used  chiefly  for  the  latter  pur- 
pose. The  seeds  yield  about  35  per  cent,  of  oil  of  an  orange 
color.  The  oil  possesses  an  acrid  flavor  which  apparently  gives 
it  some  value  as  a  preventive  against  white  ants  and  borers 
in  addition  to  its  value  as  a  paint  oil  and  wood  preservative. 


SEMI-DRYING  OILS 

Cottonseed  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  world's  oil- 
bearing  seeds.  The  cultural  systems  used  in  growing  cotton, 
however,  as  well  as  the  technical  methods  employed  in  the 
preparation  of  cottonseed  oil  are  so  familiar  to  the  American 
reader  and  have  been  the  subject  of  so  many  books  and  bul- 
letins that  it  seems  unnecessary  to  discuss  the  matter  in  this 
connection  to  an  extent  commensurate  with  the  commercial 
importance  of  the  product.  Cottonseed  oil  is  used  largely 
in  compound  lards  and  butter  substitutes,  while  the  lower 
grades  are  employed  in  soap  making  and  in  adulterating  paint 
oils  and  for  numerous  other  purposes.  The  oil  is  not  satis- 
factory as  a  lubricant.  Cottonseed  contains  about  20  per  cent, 
of  oil  and  about  13  per  cent,  of  oil  remains  in  the  cottonseed 
meal  which  is  the  chief  by-product  of  cottonseed  oil  mills. 
These  figures  indicate  sufficiently  the  yield  of  oil  obtained  by 
pressure.  About  35  gallons  of  oil  are  secured  from  each  ton 
of  seed.  Cottonseed  oil  is  held  in  the  other  material  which 
constitutes  the  seed  much  more  firmly  than  is  the  case  with 
many  other  oil  seeds.  A  significant  comparison  may  be  had 
by  considering  the  absolute  content  of  oil  and  the  percentage 
of  oil  recovered  under  commercial  conditions  in  the  case  of 
cottonseed  and  the  kukui  nut.  As  just  indicated,  the  original 
cottonseed  contains  20  per  cent,  of  oil  and  the  press  cake  13 
per  cent,  of  oil.  In  sharp  contrast  with  these  figures  we  have 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  candlenut,  which  contains  65  per  cent,  of  oil,  while  the 
press  cake  contains  only  5  to  8  per  cent,  of  oil. 

The  color  of  cottonseed  oil  is  lighter  from  fresh  seed  than 
from  old  seed.  In  the  commercial  manufacture  of  cottonseed 
oil,  the  seed  are  delinted,  decorticated,  crushed,  and  pressed 
either  cold  or  hot,  according  to  the  purpose  for  which  the 
oil  is  to  be  used.  The  great  extent  of  the  industry  in  this 
country  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  United  States  exports 
35,000,000  gallons  of  cottonseed  oil  annually  in  addition  to 
the  large  amount  consumed  at  home. 

Cottonseed  meal  or  the  ground  press  cake  which  remains 
after  the  oil  has  been  pressed  has  long  been  an  important 
stock  feed.  Its  greatest  and  most  effective  use  has  been  found 
in  feeding  dairy  cows  and  in  fattening  steers.  As  a  feed  for 
chickens,  pigs,  and  sheep,  it  has  been  less  extensively  used. 
It  has  long  been  known  that  cottonseed  meal,  when  fed  con- 
tinuously in  large  rations,  exercises  a  poisonous  effect  on  pigs. 
Much  attention  has  been  given  to  the  study  of  this  matter 
and  several  theories  have  been  proposed  as  to  the  cause  of 
the  toxicity  of  cottonseed  meal.  It  was  once  suspected  that 
the  toxic  action  of  the  meal  was  due  to  the  presence  of  pyro- 
phosphoric  acid  under  certain  conditions.  This  theory,  how- 
ever, was  later  discredited.  In  practice  it  has  been  found 
that  if  fed  in  small  rations  in  combination  with  certain  mineral 
salts  and  an  abundance  of  green  feed  the  danger  from  poison- 
ing is  largely  eliminated.  Recently  the  North  Carolina  Ex- 
periment Station  has  isolated  from  cottonseed  an  active 
principle  known  as  gossypol.  It  was  shown  that  this  substance 
has  a  pronounced  toxic  effect  and  that  the  toxicity  of  the  meal 
could  be  overcome  by  subjecting  the  meal  to  any  process 
which  would  oxidize  the  gossypol. 

Soy  bean  oil  is  becoming  a  more  and  more  important  com- 
mercial product.  The  soy  bean  (Glycine  hispida)  is  a  familiar 
legume,  native  of  China,-  Indo-China,  and  Japan  and  now 
cultivated  throughout  the  world  except  in  extremely  cold  cli- 


OILS  273 

mates.  The  most  extensive  plantings  of  soy  beans  are  in 
Japan,  Korea,  and  Manchuria,  but  recently  the  plant  has  as- 
sumed much  greater  importance  in  various  tropical  countries. 
Soy  beans  contain  from  15  to  22,  per  cent,  of  oil  and  yield 
10  to  13  per  cent,  of  oil  by  the  ordinary  commercial  methods 
of  extraction.  The  oil  is  used  in  the  Orient  for  food  and  light. 
It  is  imported  into  the  United  States  largely  for  use  in  soap 
manufacture.  The  soy  bean  industry  has  assumed  enormous 
proportions  in  China  and  Japan  on  account  of  the  oil,  meal 
cake,  and  soya  sauce  and  other  products.  There  are  more 
than  12,000  soya  sauce  factories  in  Japan  alone  and  the  soya 
sauce  factory  follows  the  Japanese  wherever  they  go.  About 
one-tenth  of  the  arable  land  of  Japan  is  devoted  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  soy  beans.  There  are  a  great  many  varieties  of  soy 
beans  producing  black,  brown,  yellow,  mottled,  and  green  seeds 
and  varying  greatly  in  oil  content. 

In  the  Orient,  soy  bean  oil  is  largely  used  for  human  food 
and  has  become  an  extremely  important  food  product.  It  is 
also  employed  in  China  for  illuminating  purposes  and  as  a 
substitute  for  linseed  oil  in  paints.  The  use  of  soy  bean  oil 
in  manufacturing  soap  and  as  a  machine  lubricant  is  also 
important.  Recently  the  oil  has  entered  quite  widely  into  the 
manufacture  of  margarine. 

Soy  bean  meal,  or  the  ground  cake  obtained  as  a  residue 
from  the  oil  factories,  is  well  known  to  be  an  extremely  valu- 
able cattle  food.  Near  the  centers  of  production  it  is  much 
cheaper  than  cottonseed  meal.  A  few  cases  have  occurred 
where  poisonous  effects  were  apparently  produced  from  exces- 
sive feeding  with  soy  bean  meal  but  the  matter  still  remains 
somewhat  uncertain.  In  Japan,  a  number  of  other  products 
are  prepared  from  soy  beans.  A  product  known  as  soy-bean 
milk  is  made  by  soaking  beans  in  water  for  12  hours  and 
then  pressing  them  between  mill  stones,  after  which  the  pow- 
der is  boiled  with  three  times  its  bulk  in  water  and  filtered 
through  cloth.  The  product  resembles  milk  in  appearance 


274  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

and  is  considered  a  valuable  source  of  nourishment  for  chil- 
dren. The  milk  may  be  further  treated  with  magnesium 
chlorid  to  precipitate  the  proteids,  which  are  then  collected 
by  filtration,  pressed,  and  dried  into  a  product  known  as  soy 
bean  cheese.  Soya  sauce  or  shoyu  sauce  is  a  much  more 
important  product  of  the  soy  bean.  This  material  is  prepared 
from  a  mixture  of  boiled  and  pulverized  soy  beans,  and 
roasted,  pulverized  wheat  with  salt  and  water.  The  whole 
mass  is  fermented  with  rice  wine  ferment  in  large  vats  for 
from  i  to  5  years,  being  stirred  at  frequent  intervals.  The 
product  is  a  dark  brown  or  almost  black  sauce,  resembling 
beef  extract  in  appearance  but  of  a  more  pungent  quality. 
Soya  sauce  is  widely  used  in  this  form  by  the  Japanese  and 
serves  also  as  the  basis  for  Worcestershire  sauce  and  other 
meat  sauces  used  in  Europe  and  America.  The  moist  cake 
residue  obtained  in  the  manufacture  of  soya  sauce  is  of  very 
different  composition  from  the  soy-bean  meal  derived  from 
oil  factories.  The  residue  which  comes  from  the  soy  factories 
contains  15  per  cent,  moisture,  24.5  per  cent,  ash  (nearly  all 
of  which  is  common  salt),  17.25  per  cent,  protein,  18  per  cent, 
fat,  and  24  per  cent,  carbohydrates.  This  material  may  be 
used  as  a  stock  feed  after  washing  out  the  salt  in  water.  The 
soy  bean  crop  matures  in  from  85  to  130  days  after  seeding 
and  the  yield  varies  from  25  to  40  bushels  of  beans  per  acre. 
Kapok  oil  is  obtained  from  the  seeds  of  kapok  (Eriodendron 
anfractuosum) ,  a  tree  native  to  the  East  Indies,  West  Indies, 
Malaya,  Central  America,  and  Africa.  The  hull  of  the  kapok 
seed  is  easily  removed  from  the  kernel.  The  seed  yield  about 
1 8  per  cent,  of  oil  of  a  greenish-yellow  color  and  agreeable 
flavor.  This  oil  is  used  in  the  Tropics  for  food  purposes. 
Large  quantities  of  the  seed  are  imported  into  Holland,  where 
the  oil  is  expressed  for  use  in  soap  and  as  a  substitute  for 
cottonseed  oil.  If  the  seed  is  not  thoroughly  decorticated  be- 
fore grinding  and  pressing,  the  oil  has  a  reddish  color.  Its 
properties  are  very  similar  to  those  of  cottonseed  oil. 


OILS  275 

Sesame  oil,  also  called  gingelly  oil  and  by  other  names,  is 
obtained  from  the  seed  of  Sesamum  indicum.  The  crop  is 
cultivated  chiefly  in  India,  Java,  Siam,  China,  Japan,  and  the 
Levant.  Sesame  is  an  annual  plant  attaining  a  height  of  2  or 

3  feet.    The  seed  are  sown  broadcast  and  the  crop  matures  in 

4  months  from  the  time  of  seeding.     The  yield  is  commonly 
about  20  bushels  of  seed  per  acre,  from  which  60  gallons  of 
oil  are  obtained.     The  seed  contains  from  50  to  57  per  cent. 
of  oil. 

Marseilles  is  the  great  mill  town  for  sesame  seed,  importing 
about  100,000,000  pounds  of  seed  annually.  Sesame  press 
cake  is  widely  and  favorably  known  as  a  cattle  feed.  The  oil 
is  extensively  used  as  human  food  and  for  anointing  the  body 
in  India,  while  in  Europe  it  serves  widely  as  a  salad  oil  and 
for  use  in  the  manufacture  of  soap.  A  particularly  fine 
quality  of  seed  for  oil  purposes  comes  from  Palestine. 

Sesame  seed  are  dried,  ground,  and  pressed  for  il/2  hours. 
The  yield  by  commercial  methods  is  32  to  35  per  cent,  of  oil 
under  the  system  of  cold  pressure.  After  this  first  extraction 

5  per  cent,  of  water  is  added  and  the  mass  is  again  pressed 
at  a  temperature  of  50°  C.    A  third  application  of  pressure 
is  then  made,  yielding  about  10  per  cent,  of  oil  additional  to 
that  obtained  from  the  first  two  pressures.     The  oil  secured 
by  the  first  pressure  is  not  of  strong  flavor  and  is  clear,  that 
obtained  from  the  second  and  third  pressure  is  darker,  of  a 
decided  flavor,  and  with  a  tendency  to  become  acid. 

The  best  grade  of  sesame  oil  is  used  as  a  substitute  for  olive 
oil  in  salads  and  in  medicine  and  also  in  margarine  and  vege- 
table butters.  For  this  purpose  northern  Europe  imports 
32,000  tons  of  sesame  seed  annually.  Sesame  cake  contains 
5  to  13  per  cent,  of  fat  and  24  to  40  per  cent,  of  protein.  The 
cake  is  much  used  as  a  cattle  feed  in  rations  of  2  to  4  pounds 
per  day. 

Sesame  oil  is  one  of  the  important  vegetable  oils  of  India. 
The  oil  obtained  from  the  first  press  keeps  for  a  long  time 


276  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

without  becoming  rancid.  The  area  devoted  to  sesame  in 
India  is  about  4,500,000  acres  and  the  annual  yield  is  approxi- 
mately 200,000  tons. 

Rape-seed  oil  is  imported  into  Europe  in  greatest  quanti- 
ties from  Bombay.  The  seed  contains  from  33  to  40  per  cent. 
of  oil.  The  cold  pressed  oil  is  used  for  eating  purposes  in 
India  and  Europe.  In  the  United  States,  rape-seed  oil  is 
much  used  as  a  "bread  oil"  to  grease  the  ends  of  the  loaves 
of  bread.  Rape-seed  oil,  extracted  by  chemicals,  is  used  for 
illuminating  and  lubricating  purposes  as  well  as  the  manufac- 
ture of  soap.  Europe  imports  280,000,000  pounds  of  rape 
seed  annually  from  India.  The  area  devoted  to  the  produc- 
tion of  rape  in  India  is  about  3,500,000  acres. 


NONDRYING  OILS 

Olive  oil  is  produced  chiefly  in  the  Mediterranean  countries, 
Syria,  California,  South  Africa,  and  Australia.  The  palp  of 
the  fruit  yields  10  to  50  per  cent,  of  oil  according  to  variety 
and  locality.  The  yield  per  acre  varies  from  500  to  2,000  gal- 
lons of  oil.  The  largest  yield  of  oil  is  obtained  from  com- 
pletely ripe  fruit,  but  the  highest  grade  of  oil  comes  from  fruit 
which  is  not  fully  ripe.  In  ordinary  practice  the  fruit  is 
crushed  entire,  but  a  better  quality  of  oil  is  obtained  from  the 
pulp  or  marc  alone,  in  which  case  the  oil  is  marketed  under  the 
name  of  olive  kernel  oil. 

In  California  the  percentage  of  oil  in  olives  is  comparatively 
low.  It  has  been  found  that  the  fruit  should  be  pressed  as 
soon  as  possible  after  picking,  but  methods  have  been  devised 
for  holding  the  fruit  a  long  time  without  deterioration.  The 
first  expression  from  the  fresh  olive  pulp  yields  "Provence  oil," 
"Nice  oil,"  "Riviera  oils,"  and  other  high  grades  of  olive  oil. 
After  the  first  expression  water  is  added  to  the  pulp  and  pres- 
sure again  applied.  From  the  second  expression,  salad  oil  or 
common  table  oil  of  second  grade  is  obtained.  The  pulp  is 


OILS  277 

then  removed  from  the  press,  mixed  with  hot  water,  and 
pressed  a  third  time,  yielding  an  oil  for  lubricating  or  soap- 
making  purposes.  The  stearin  and  other  material  is  allowed 
to  settle  out,  after  which  the  oil  is  decanted  from  the  top  and 
filtered  to  render  it  clear.  Large  quantities  of  olive  oil  are 
used  for  table  purposes.  The  United  States  alone  imports 
nearly  7,000,000  gallons  of  olive  oil  annually  in  addition  to  the 
considerable  quantities  produced  in  California.  Low  grades 
of  the  oil  are  used  in  textile  soaps,  in  calico  printing,  in  me- 
dicinal soaps,  and  for  various  other  purposes. 

Castor  oil  is  derived  from  the  familiar  castor  bean  (Ricinus 
communis),  a  plant  native  to  Africa,  but  now  cultivated  every- 
where in  the  Tropics  and  subtropics.  The  castor  bean  has  been 
grown  for  the  bean  as  far  north  as  Kentucky  in  the  United 
States  and  as  an  ornamental  even  in  Canada.  The  plant  is  cul- 
tivated chiefly  as  an  annual,  but  in  the  Tropics  some  varieties 
reach  a  height  of  40  feet  as  a  perennial.  There  are  many 
varieties  of  castor  bean,  differing  in  color  and  marking  of  the 
seed  and  in  habit  of  growth. 

The  chief  sources  of  castor  bean  are  India,  Java,  Persia, 
China,  Japan,  Mediterranean  countries,  Mexico,  and  the 
United  States.  The  yield  of  beans  varies  from  12  to  30  bushels 
per  acre.  The  United  States  imports  900,000  bushels  of  castor 
beans  annually,  while  India  exports  3,000,000  bushels  of  beans 
and  2,000,000  gallons  of  castor  oil  per  year. 

The  castor  bean  yields  from  25  to  40  per  cent,  of  oil  by  pres- 
sure. The  bean  also  contains  a  poisonous  alkaloid  known  as 
ricin.  Ricin  does  not  pass  into  the  oil  if  pressed  cold.  The 
first  cold  expression  yields  a  medicinal  oil  of  high  grade.  Sub- 
sequent expressions  yield  low-grade  oils  used  for  lubricating 
and  manufacturing  purposes.  Low-grade  or  damaged  castor 
beans  are  commonly  treated  directly  with  chemical  solvents  for 
the  complete  extraction  of  the  oil  to  be  used  for  manufactur- 
ing purposes. 

In  Oklahoma,  castor  beans  are  planted  15  to  18  inches 


278  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

apart  in  rows  4  feet  apart,  but  in  tropical  countries  the  plant- 
ing distance  is  5  or  6  feet  both  ways.  The  castor  oil  industry 
in  India  is  a  very  important  one.  The  oil  is  highly  valued 
for  use  in  lubricating  machinery,  for  dressing  hides  and  skins, 
for  illuminating  purposes,  in  the  manufacture  of  soap  and  can- 
dles, and  as  a  medicine.  Cold  pressed  oil  gives  a  more  brilliant 
light  than  oil  obtained  from  boiled  or  roasted  beans.  The  press 
cake  obtained  from  castor  oil  mills  is  widely  used  as  a  fertilizer 
for  rice,  potatoes,  and  sugar  cane.  In  India  the  beans  are 
picked  from  the  seventh  to  ninth  month  after  planting.  The 
yield  ranges  from  500  to  900  pounds  of  beans  per  acre. 

Peanuts  are  grown  as  a  commercial  crop  chiefly  in  the  East 
Indies,  Java,  Mozambique,  United  States,  Togo,  southern  Ni- 
geria and  the  West  Indies.  Senegal  exports  200,000,000  pounds 
of  peanuts  annually  to  Europe.  In  the  commercial  preparation 
of  peanut  oil  it  has  been  found  that  the  first  cold  expression 
yields  the  best  oil.  This  oil  is  used  as  a  salad  oil.  A  second 
grade  of  peanut  oil  is  also  used  for  salad  purposes,  being  sold 
at  a  lower  price.  The  third  grade  of  oil  is  employed  largely  in 
the  manufacture  of  soap.  High-grade  peanut  oil  is  quite  widely 
used  as  an  adulterant  of  olive  oil  and  in  preserving  sardines 
and  for  other  culinary  purposes.  Peanuts  yield  32  per  cent,  of 
oil  by  the  ordinary  commercial  methods.  The  oil  cake  which  is 
thus  obtained  as  a  residue  contains  8  to  9  per  cent,  of  oil  and  is 
an  excellent  cattle  feed.  The  chief  tropical  producing  countries 
export  nearly  70x3,000  tons  of  peanuts  annually  for  use  as  a 
source  of  oil. 

Rice  oil,  obtained  from  rice  bran  and  meal,  has  come  to  be 
a  commercial  product  of  considerable  importance.  Unmilled 
rice  contains  2  or  3  per  cent,  of  oil.  Most  of  this  oil  is  located 
in  the  outer  portion  of  the  grain  and  is  therefore  removed  in 
milling.  In  the  rice  mills  of  Rangoon  it  has  been  found  that 
the  bran  contains  as  high  as  20  per  cent,  of  oil.  Rice  oil  com- 
monly shows  a  rather  high  acidity.  It  is  extracted  by  com- 
mercial solvents  and  is  chiefly  used  in  the  manufacture  of  soap. 


OILS  279 

The  almond  oil  of  commerce  is  chiefly  expressed  from  bitter 
almonds  in  the  Mediterranean  countries  and  Persia.  The 
seeds  yield  from  20  to  45  per  cent,  of  oil.  In  trade  the  oil  is 
much  adulterated  with  oil  from  peach  or  apricot  kernels.  Al- 
mond oil  is  used  almost  exclusively  for  pharmaceutical  pur- 
poses. By  distilling  the  seeds  an  essential  oil  of  bitter  almonds 
is  obtained  for  use  in  perfumery,  confectionery,  and  medicine. 

Tea  oil  is  obtained  chiefly  from  the  seeds  of  Camellia  cleifera 
and  other  species  of  this  genus,  including  the  commercial  tea 
plant.  The  production  of  tea  seeds  for  oil  is  confined  largely  to 
China,  Tonkin,  Assam,  and  Japan.  For  this  purpose  the  seeds 
are  gathered  in  the  fall.  The  seeds  yield  15  per  cent,  of  oil 
by  pressure.  This  oil  is  sometimes  used  as  a  food  oil  in  China, 
but  in  Japan  it  is  employed  chiefly  as  an  expensive  hair  oil 
and  for  lubricating  delicate  machinery.  Tea  oil  is  light  yellow 
in  color,  closely  resembling  olive  oil  in  its  general  character, 
but  possessing  a  somewhat  acrid  taste.  It  serves  fairly  well 
as  an  illuminating  oil  and  gives  excellent  results  in  the  manu- 
facture of  hard  white  soap.  The  press  cake  obtained  as  a  resi- 
due in  the  manufacture  of  tea  oil  is  poisonous  and  therefore 
of  no  value  as  a  cattle  feed.  Its  fertilizing  value  is  also  rather 
low. 

Ben  oil  is  obtained  from  the  seeds  of  Moringa  pterygos- 
perma,  a  tree  native  to  India,  Syria,  Arabia,  Nigeria,  Jamaica, 
and  other  countries.  The  seeds  of  this  tree  yield  about  36  per 
cent,  of  oil.  Ben  oil  is  composed  of  60  per  cent,  liquid  oil  and 
40  per  cent,  white  solid  fat.  The  oil  has  a  yellowish  color.  It 
is  used  in  the  Orient  as  a  cosmetic  oil  and  also  in  the  enfleurage 
process  of  extracting  perfumes  from  flowers. 

Sterculia  oil  is  derived  from  the  seed  of  a  moderate-sized 
tree  (S.  fcetida),  native  to  the  East  Indies,  Indo-China,  and 
Malaya.  The  seeds  of  this  tree  yield  30  per  cent,  of  oil,  which 
is  commonly  used  in  Java  and  other  Oriental  countries  as  a 
cooking  oil  and  for  illuminating  purposes. 

Canari  oil  is  obtained  from  the  pili  nut  tree   (Carnarium 


280  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

commune),  indigenous  to  Malabar  and  the  Molucca  Islands, 
and  cultivated  also  in  various  other  parts  of  the  Tropics.  The 
nuts  of  this  tree  yield  56  per  cent,  of  oil  by  pressure.  The  oil 
is  of  a  yellow  color  and  very  agreeable  flavor.  It  is  used  exclu- 
sively as  a  food  oil. 

VEGETABLE  FATS 

The  most  important  of  the  oils  which  come  under  this  group 
is  palm  oil,  obtained  from  the  nuts  of  Elceis  guineensis,  native 
of  west  Africa,  where  it  occurs  in  enormous  areas.  The  oil 
palm  is  also  cultivated  in  various  tropical  regions,  particularly 
in  Nigeria.  It  is  a  handsome  tree  40  to  60  feet  high,  with  large, 
graceful,  pinnate  leaves.  The  oil  palm  begins  bearing  at  the 
age  of  5  or  6  years  and  comes  into  full  bearing  at  15  years 
of  age,  after  which  it  continues  its  productive  life  for  60  to  70 
years.  Each  tree  bears  about  10  bunches  of  200  nuts  each  per 
year.  About  70,000  tons  of  palm  oil  and  175,000  tons  of  ker- 
nels are  annually  exported  from  west  Africa.  The  United 
States  imports  25,000  tons  of  palm  oil  per  year. 

The  bunches  of  ripe  nuts  are  cut  off  with  a  machete  and 
allowed  to  fall  to  the  ground.  The  fruit  pulp  yields  a  yellow- 
ish oil  which  is  widely  used  in  the  soap  and  candle  industries. 
The  kernels  yield  a  white  fat  which  is  much  employed  as  a 
vegetable  butter.  The  kernel  oil  is  obtained  by  hydraulic  pres- 
sure in  the  oil  mills  of  Europe.  A  high-grade  pulp  oil  is  se- 
cured by  the  natives  through  the  use  of  hand  presses  and  a 
low-grade  oil  by  boiling.  The  yield  averages  about  I  to  3  gal- 
lons of  oil  per  tree  annually.  This  yield  could  be  much  in- 
creased by  improvement  in  the  methods  of  handling  the  nuts. 
The  present  native  methods  are  very  wasteful.  It  has  been 
estimated  that  these  careless  methods  cause  an  unnecessary 
loss  of  about  one-third  the  possible  oil  yield. 

From  I  ton  of  the  palm  kernels  900  pounds  of  oil  are  ob- 
tained. This  oil  is  a  white,  solid  mass  at  ordinary  tempera- 
tures. It  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of  soap  and  candles  and 


GELS  28I\ 

in  constantly  increasing  amounts  in  margarine  and  cooking 
fats.  About  35,000  tons  of  the  kernel  oil  are  used  annually 
in  northern  Europe  in  the  manufacture  of  margarine.  Palm 
kernel  cake  contains  6  per  cent,  fat  and  18  per  cent,  protein. 
This  product  is  widely  and  favorably  known  as  a  cattle  feed, 
being  used  for  this  purpose  not  only  by  the  natives  but  also 
in  Europe,  where  the  material  is  shipped  in  large  quantities. 

Cocoa  butter  constitutes  about  50  to  55  per  cent,  by  weight 
of  the  cacao  beans.  It  is  obtained  as  a  by-product  in  the  man- 
ufacture of  cocoa  as  indicated  in  the  discussion  of  cocoa  under 
Beverages.  Cocoa  butter  is  yellowish  when  fresh  but  turns 
white  with  age.  It  possesses  a  chocolate  flavor  and  is  very 
firm  at  ordinary  temperatures.  Cocoa  butter  is  used  in  phar- 
macy, confectionery,  and  in  the  preparation  of  perfumes. 
Large  quantities  of  the  material  are  ordinarily  to  be  had  for 
this  purpose. 

Chinese  vegetable  tallow  is  a  firm  fat  which  occurs  as  a  coat- 
ing on  the  seeds  of  Stillingia  sebifera,  a  tree  native  to  China 
and  Indo-China.  Each  fruit  of  this  tree  has  3  seeds.  The  tree 
begins  bearing  at  5  years  of  age  and  produces  50  pounds  of 
seeds  per  tree  per  year  or  about  15  pounds  of  fat.  Hankow 
is  the  center  of  production,  which  amounts  to  10,000  tons  a 
year.  About  5,000  tons  of  the  material  are  sent  to  Europe  and 
the  United  States.  It  is  extensively  used  in  China  and  else- 
where in  the  manufacture  of  candles.  The  seed  kernels  yield 
Stillingia  oil,  which  is  discussed  elsewhere  in  this  chapter. 

Chaulmoogra  oil  is  a  vegetable  fat  obtained  by  expression 
from  the  seeds  of  the  tree  Taraktogenos  kurzii,  native  to 
Burma  and  Assam.  Under  pressure  the  seeds  yield  a  yellow- 
ish oil  possessing  the  consistency  of  butter.  The  oil  is  much 
used  in  the  Orient  and  in  Europe  in  treating  skin  diseases,  and 
is  sometimes  used  internally  in  the  treatment  of  tuberculosis. 
In  the  Orient,  Chaulmoogra  oil  has  been  much  used  in  treat- 
ing the  superficial  lesions  of  leprosy. 

Hydnocarpus  oil  is  a  yellowish,  semi-solid  vegetable  fat  ob- 


282  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

tained  from  the  seeds  of  (H.  ztnghtiana) ,  a  tree  native  to 
India.  Under  pressure  the  seeds  yield  32  per  cent,  of  the  oil, 
which  is  used  as  a  substitute  for  Chaulmoogra  oil.  The  seeds 
of  H.  anthelmintica  also  yield  by  pressure  about  16  per  cent, 
of  an  oil  called  lukrabo  oil,  which  is  similar  in  odor  and  con: 
sistency  to  Chaulmoogra  oil. 

Pongam  oil  is  derived  from  the  beans  produced  by  Pon- 
gamia  glabra,  a  tree  native  to  India,  Ceylon,  and  Malacca.  The 
beans  yield  by  pressure  about  25  per  cent,  of  yellow  oil,  which 
is  much  used  in  medicine  and  for  illuminating  purposes  in 
India. 

Carapa  oil  is  produced  by  the  seeds  of  C.  guianensis,  a  hand- 
some tree  native  to  French  Guiana.  This  tree  reaches  a  height 
of  75  feet  and  bears  pinnate  leaves.  The  natives  obtain  the 
oil  by  boiling  the  seeds  in  water  and  allowing  the  oil  to  drain 
from  the  mass.  The  seeds  yield  about  40  per  cent,  of  oil  by 
pressure.  This  oil  is  employed  by  the  natives  in  Guiana,  Bra- 
zil, etc.,  as  an  ointment  to  protect  the  skin  against  the  attacks 
of  insects. 

Shea  butter  is  a  vegetable  fat  obtained  from  the  nuts  of 
Butyrospermum  parkii,  a  tree  native  to  the  west  coast  of 
Africa  and  the  Sudan.  The  tree  grows  to  a  height  of  40  feet 
or  more.  The  nuts  are  pounded  and  boiled  in  water,  after 
which  the  fat  is  skimmed  off.  The  oil  has  found  quite  a  wide 
use  in  the  manufacture  of  soap  and  candles. 

Nutmeg  butter  is  derived  from  the  nutmeg  kernel  by  pres- 
sure. Only  a  small  part  of  the  1,500  tons  of  nutmegs  an- 
nually produced  in  the  world  is  used  as  a  source  of  nutmeg 
butter.  The  seeds  yield  40  per  cent,  of  fat  of  a  yellow  color, 
nutmeg  flavor,  and  of  the  consistency  of  tallow.  Most  of  the 
nutmegs  of  Europe  come  from  the  Banda  Islands.  Mace  but- 
ter is  made  both  from  the  mace  of  the  commercial  species  of 
nutmeg  and  also  from  Myristica  argentea,  a  tree  of  common 
occurrence  in  New  Guinea.  Nutmeg  butter  is  largely  used  in 
medicine  in  the  preparation  of  ointments. 


OILS  283 

Kokune  butter,  also  called  mangosteen  oil,  is  obtained  from 
the  seeds  of  the  mangosteen  which  yield  about  20  per  cent,  of 
fat  of  a  white  color  and  not  unpleasant  flavor.  Kokune  butter 
is  prepared  especially  on  the  west  coast  of  India  where  it  is 
widely  used  as  a  food  fat. 

Cohune  oil  is  obtained  from  nuts  of  the  palm  Attalea  co- 
hune, native  to  Central  America,  especially  Mexico,  British 
Honduras,  and  Guatemala.  The  nuts  are  about  the  size  of 
nutmegs  and  contain  40  per  cent,  of  the  firm  yellow  fat.  The 
nuts  offer  much  difficulty  in  grinding,  and  suitable  machinery 
for  crushing  them  has  not  yet  been  devised.  The  cohune 
palm  is  estimated  to  occupy  nearly  2,000,000  acres  in  British 
Honduras,  or  approximately  two-fifths  of  the  total  area  of  the 
colony.  The  nuts  are  borne  in  large  bunches  and  the  yield  of 
each  tree  is  1,000  to  2,000  nuts  per  year,  or  about  200  pounds 
of  nuts.  The  kernels  of  the  nuts  are  about  I  inch  in  diameter. 
Occasionally,  however,  they  attain  a  greater  size.  The  fat 
obtained  from  the  kernels  is  solid  white,  of  a  crystalline  struc- 
ture, and  resembles  coconut  oil  in  appearance  and  smell.  The 
kernels  yield  about  65  per  cent,  by  weight  of  fat. 

Coconut  oil  has  long  been  one  of  the  most  important  of  the 
vegetable  fats,  and  its  importance  is  increasing  constantly  with 
the  improvement  in  methods  of  refining  and  purifying  it.  This 
oil  is  discussed  in  the  chapter  on  coconuts. 

Japan  wax  is  derived  from  the  berries  of  Rhus  succedanea, 
a  sumac  bush  native  of  Japan,  China,  and  Tonkin.  By  pres- 
sure the  berries  yield  20  per  cent,  of  a  greenish  wax. 

The  most  important  refineries  for  this  material  are  located  in 
Kobi  and  Osaka.  The  total  production  of  Japan  wax  is  about 
2,400  tons  annually,  and  of  this  quantity  about  250  tons  are 
exported  to  Europe  and  America. 

Mowra  fat  is  produced  by  Bassia  latifolia  and  B.  longifolia 
which  are  native  nut-bearing  trees  in  India.  For  the  most 
part  the  nuts  are  collected  from  wild  trees  but  the  cultivation 
of  these  trees  is  increasing  in  recent  years.  Mowra  fat  is 


284  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

widely  used  in  India  and  is  also  exported  to  the  extent  of 
66,000,000  pounds  annually.  The  oil  content  of  the  nut  ker- 
nels is  55  to  65  per  cent.  Mowra  fat  is  soft  and  yellow.  It 
is  used  in  India  as  a  cooking  fat  particularly  for  mixing  with 
ghi,  or  clarified  butter,  and  for  tallow.  In  Europe,  mowra  fat 
is  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  margarine  and  also  as  a 
chocolate  fat.  In  soap-making,  mowra  fat  is  of  equal  value 
with  palm  oil.  Mowra  cake  contains  a  poisonous  saponin  and 
is  therefore  not  suitable  for  use  as  a  cattle  feed.  The  ma- 
terial, however,  makes  a  good  fertilizer,  containing  17  per 
cent,  protein  and  7.5  per  cent.  ash. 

The  same  material  is  obtained  from  Mauritius  under  the 
name  illipe  oil.  In  Mauritius  it  appears  that  100  kilograms  of 
shelled  nuts  are  required  to  yield  16.5  liters  of  pure  oil.  While 
this  oil  is  used  in  considerable  quantities  in  India  as  a  cooking 
oil,  it  seems  not  likely  to  assume  any  importance  in  that  re- 
gard in  Europe  or  America. 

ESSENTIAL  OILS 

Citronella  grass  oil  is  obtained  by  distillation  from  the  leaves 
of  the  grass  Andropogon  nardus  which  is  cultivated  espe- 
cially in  Ceylon  and  Java.  In  Ceylon  about  40,000  acres  are 
devoted  to  the  production  of  this  crop.  Two  cuttings  a  year 
are  obtained  and  the  yield  of  oil  per  acre  is  40  pounds  per 
year.  The  oil  is  used  chiefly  in  perfuming  toilet  soaps  of  the 
cheaper  quality.  There  appear  to  be  several  grades  of  this 
oil  in  Ceylon  and  apparently  two  or  more  varieties  of  citro- 
nella  grass  are  used  as  a  source  of  the  oil.  A  planting  of 
citronella  grass  persists  for  15  years  or  more  before  the 
plants  become  exhausted. 

Lemon  grass  oil  is  obtained  from  the  leaves  of  a  closely 
related  grass,  A.  citratus,  native  to  India  and  Ceylon.  The 
yield  obtained  from  this  grass  averages  20  pounds  of  oil  per 
acre  with  a  value  of  about  $500.  The  oil  is  used  in  scenting 


OILS  285 

fine  toilet  soaps  and  for  various  other  purposes.  Lemon  grass 
oil  is  also  called  verbena  oil.  Several  other  species  of  An- 
dropogon  yield  oils  which  have  been  used  for  similar  pur- 
poses. This  is  particularly  true  of  A.  muricatus,  A.  odorati4S, 
A.  laniger,  and  A.  martini.  From  the  latter  species  Palma- 
rosa  oil  or  Indian  geranium  oil  is  derived.  The  United  States 
imports  about  890,000  pounds  of  citronella  and  lemon  grass 
oils  annually.  Recently  the  cultivation  of  lemon  grass  for  the 
production  of  oil  has  reached  large  proportions  in- Uganda. 
The  oil  obtained  from  Uganda,  however,  is  thus  far  inferior 
to  the  East  Indian  product. 

Eucalyptus  oil  is  derived  chiefly  from  E.  globulus  and  E. 
citriodora.  These  trees  are  native  to  Australia  but  are  now 
widely  cultivated  throughout  the  Tropics  and  subtropics,  in- 
cluding California  and  the  Southern  States.  Oil  has  been 
produced  from  more  than  100  species  of  eucalyptus  and  the 
oil  from  these  different  sources  has  been  found  upon  ex- 
amination to  differ  somewhat  according  to  the  species  from 
which  it  is  derived.  Blue  gum  (E.  globulus}  is,  however,  the 
chief  commercial  source  of  eucalyptus  oil  and  is  taken  as  a 
standard.  The  fresh  leaves  from  this  tree  yield  about  I  per 
cent,  of  oil  which  is  rich  in  eucalyptol,  the  active  medicinal 
principle  of  the  oil.  Eucalyptus  oil  is  widely  used  for  med- 
ical purposes,  especially  as  a  nasal  oil  spray.  The  oil  from 
certain  other  species  of  eucalyptus  has  been  used  to  some  ex- 
tent in  scenting  soaps  and  other  toilet  articles.  This  is  par- 
ticularly true  of  E.  citriodora,  the  leaves  of  which  yield  a  pale 
yellow  oil  with  the  strong  odor  characteristic  of  citronella 
grass.  Eucalyptus  oil  is  in  all  cases  obtained  by  distillation 
of  the  leaves. 

Sandal  wood  oil  is  derived  from  the  wood  of  Santalum  album, 
the  true  sandalwood  tree,  native  of  India,  especially  in  My- 
sore, Coimbatore,  and  Malabar.  Upon  distillation  the  wood 
yellow  color  and  of  a  thick  molasses-like  consistency.  It  is 
yields  1.5  to  6  per  cent,  of  oil.  Sandalwood  oil  is  of  a  pale 


286  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

used  in  medicine  and  perfumery,  especially  in  the  Orient. 
Sandalwood  oil  is  also  obtained  from  various  other  species 
of  Santalum,  including  S.  freycinetianum,  S.  pyrularium,  and 
S.  haleakalce  of  Hawaii,  and  also  from  5\  cygnorum  and  5". 
preissianum  of  Australia.  In  Mysore,  sandalwood  planta- 
tions belong  to  the  government.  Large  quantities  of  wood 
are  shipped  from  that  region  to  Europe  where  the  wood  is 
used  chiefly  for  distillation  to  obtain  sandalwood  oil. 

The  trade  in  sandalwood  was  at  one  time  an  important  in- 
dustry in  Hawaii.  This  material  was  largely  shipped  to  the 
Orient  where  it  was  used  in  the  preparation  of  chests  and 
fancy  boxes,  and  also  for  the  preparation  of  the  oil  and  its 
subsequent  use  in  perfumes.  The  tree  has  been  practically 
exterminated  in  Hawaii  as  a  result  of  the  indiscriminate  meth- 
ods of  harvesting. 

Cinnamon  oil,  as  the  name  indicates,  is  obtained  from  the 
chips  or  waste  and  broken  pieces  of  cinnamon.  Large  quan- 
tities of  this  waste  material  accumulate  during  the  preparation 
of  the  cinnamon  quills.  Cinnamon  oil  has  been  much  adul- 
terated with  the  essential  oil  of  the  cinnamon  leaves.  Cassia 
oil  is  derived  from  cassia  bark  and  is  of  a  much  ranker  odor 
and  of  a  correspondingly  lower  value.  The  cultivation  of  the 
cassia  tree  as  a  source  of  oil  is  carried  on  chiefly  in  southern 
China.  The  oil  is  obtained  principally  from  the  leaves.  A 
similar  oil  is  derived  from  the  bark,  flowers,  and  twigs,  but 
the  process  of  distillation  of  the  leaves  is  cheaper.  Cassia 
oil  has  been  found  to  be  much  adulterated  with  resin.  The 
true  cinnamon  chips  yield  J/2  to  I  per  cent,  of  oil.  This  oil  is 
extensively  used  in  perfumery  and  in  medicine.  The  United 
States  imports  125,000  pounds  of  cassia  and  cinnamon  oils 
annually. 

Gurjun  balsam  oil  is  derived  from  a  balsam  which  exudes 
from  the  stem  of  a  tall  tree  (Dipterocarpus  turbinatus),  native 
of  India.  This  balsam  is  quite  largely  used  to  adulterate  co- 
paiba balsam. 


OILS  287 

Lemon  oil  is  obtained  from  the  rind  of  the  lemon.  The  oil 
is  produced  in  small  quantities  in  nearly  all  tropical  and  sub- 
tropical countries,  but  chiefly  near  Messina,  Sicily.  The 
United  States  imports  about  450,000  pounds  annually.  Lemon 
oil  is  also  produced  in  other  Mediterranean  countries,  New 
South  Wales,  Jamaica,  Florida,  and  California.  Several 
methods  have  been  developed  for  obtaining  the  oil,  but  the 
method  chiefly  used  in  Sicily  consists  of  pricking  the  rind 
with  a  needle  brush  and  catching  the  oil  with  a  sponge  by 
hand  pressure  on  the  rind.  Lemon  oil  is  chiefly  used  as  a 
flavoring  material. 

Orange  oil  is  derived  mostly  from  the  sweet  and  sour  orange 
rind,  particularly  in  Sicily  and  Italy.  The  oil  is  expressed  by 
the  method  just  mentioned  in  connection  with  lemon  oil. 
Orange  oil  is  used  in  scenting  soaps  and  toilet  waters  and  in 
perfumes.  The  United  States  imports  80,000  pounds  an- 
nually. 

Lime  oil  is  produced  in  Italy  from  the  rind  of  the  lime  in 
the  same  manner  as  lemon  oil.  In  the  West  Indies  the  lime 
oil  is  obtained  as  a  by-product  by  distillation  in  concentrating 
lime  juice. 

Oil  of  cloves  is  derived  from  the  familiar  spice  Eugenia 
caryophyllata,  native  of  the  Molucca  Islands,  where  it  is  still 
most  widely  cultivated  as  a  spice.  Clove  oil  is  now  produced 
chiefly  in  Zanzibar  and  the  Pemba  Islands.  The  oil  is  ob- 
tained by  distillation  of  the  cloves  or  dried  unexpanded  flower 
buds.  Cloves  yield  15  per  cent,  of  clove  oil  by  the  process 
of  distillation.  The  oil  is  clear  at  first  but  soon  becomes  yel- 
lowish in  color.  It  has  a  high  specific  gravity,  being  heavier 
than  water.  Clove  oil  is  used  in  medicine,  as  an  antiseptic, 
in  microscopy  and  in  flavoring. 

Ginger  oil  is  obtained  chiefly  from  the  West  Indies  and 
East  Indies.  The  oil  is  distilled  from  the  roots  of  Jamaica 
ginger.  These  roots  or  rhizomes  yield  about  2  or  3  per  cent, 
oil  of  a  yellow  color  which  is  chiefly  used  in  flavoring  liqueurs. 


288  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

Cardamom  oil  is  now  obtained  principally  from  India  and 
Ceylon.  The  oil  is  distilled  from  the  commercial  cardamom 
seeds.  The  Ceylon  seeds  yield  3  to  6  per  cent,  of  oil.  The 
chief  use  of  cardamom  oil  is  for  flavoring  purposes. 

Oil  of  cubebs  is  obtained  mostly  from  Java.  The  dried  cu- 
beb  fruits  yield  10  to  15  per  cent,  of  a  greenish  oil  by  the 
process  of  distillation.  Cubeb  oil  is  used  in  medicine  and 
in  flavoring  liqueurs. 

Camphor  oil  really  belongs  in  the  same  series  with  camphor, 
the  oil  being  the  liquid  portion  and  camphor  the  solid  por- 
tion of  the  product  of  distillation  of  camphor  wood  and  leaves. 
The  oil  is  separated  from  the  camphor  by  pressure  or  draining. 

Cascarilla  oil  is  derived  by  distillation  from  the  bark  of 
Croton  eleutheria,  a  shrub  native  to  the  Bahamas.  The  bark 
of  this  shrub  yields  I  to  3  per  cent,  of  an  oil  which  is  very 
aromatic  and  is  used  in  fumigating  pastilles. 

Patchouli  oil  comes  largely  from  Penang,  Malacca,  Java  and 
Mauritius.  It  is  obtained  by  distillation  from  the  leaves  of 
a  perennial  herb  (Pogostemon  patchouli)  belonging  to  the 
mint  family.  This  herb  grows  to  a  height  of  about  2  feet. 
The  dried  leaves  yield  by  distillation  2  to  4  per  cent,  of  oil, 
which  is  chiefly  used  in  scenting  soaps  and  perfumery.  The 
patchouli  leaves  are  fermented  in  heaps  before  being  dis- 
tilled. The  plant  has  long  been  cultivated  in  the  Straits  Set- 
tlements and  in  the  islands  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  The  Chinese 
seem  to  be  particularly  adept  at  making  a  success  of  this  crop. 
The  plants  attain  their  full  height  within  6  months  after  seed- 
ing, at  which  time  the  first  crop  of  leaves  is  taken.  Two  other 
crops  of  leaves  may  be  obtained  at  intervals  of  about  6  months, 
after  which  the  crop  is  replanted. 

Cummin  oil  is  produced  chiefly  in  Sicily,  Malta,  and  India. 
The  fruit  of  the  cummin  yields  2  to  4  per  cent,  of  a  yellow 
oil  by  distillation.  Cummin  oil  is  not  extensively  used. 

Pimento  oil  comes  into  the  trade  chiefly  from  the  West 
Indies.  Pimento  oil  is  also  commonly  known  as  allspice  oil 


HARVESTING   OLIVES   IN   TEBOURBA,  TUNIS 


BAMBOO  PLANTATION   IN  LOUISIANA 


OILS  289 

and  is  derived  by  distillation  of  the  dried  unripe  allspice  ber- 
ries. The  dried  berries  yield  3  to  4  per  cent,  of  a  reddish  oil 
which  is  much  used  for  flavoring  purposes. 

Oil  of  bay  is  derived  from  a  tree  (Pimenta  acris),  closely 
related  to  the  allspice  bush.  It  is  a  small,  handsome  tree  suit- 
able for  use  in  ornamenting  gardens  and  grounds.  The  leaves 
yield  by  distillation  I  to  3  per  cent,  of  oil  which  is  chiefly  used 
in  the  preparation  of  bay  rum.  The  best  grade  of  the  oil 
comes  from  St.  Thomas.  The  tree  begins  bearing  oil-yielding 
leaves  at  3  years  of  age.  The  average  yield  of  oil  is  50  pounds 
per  acre  annually. 

Cajuput  oil  is  obtained  from  a  shrub  (Melaleuca  cajuputi), 
native  of  Bouru  and  Banda  Islands.  The  shrub  belongs  to  the 
family  Myrtaceae.  The  oil  is  obtained  by  distillation  of  the 
leaves  and  is  of  greenish  color.  Cajuput  oil  is  used  in  medi- 
cine chiefly  for  external  application.  The  United  States  im- 
ports 10,000  pounds  of  this  oil  annually. 

Lignaloe  oil  comes  upon  the  market  chiefly  from  Mexico. 
It  is  derived  by  distillation  of  the  wood  of  Bursera  delpechi- 
ana  and  B.  aloexylon.  Oil  of  the  same  name  also  comes  from 
South  America,  where  it  is  obtained  from  Ocotea  caudata. 
The  Mexican  trees  yield  the  best  oil  when  40  to  60  years  old. 
On  young  trees,  however,  strips  of  bark  are  removed  to  hasten 
the  maturity  of  the  wood.  In  order  to  obtain  the  oil  the  wood 
is  cut  into  chips  and  distilled.  It  yields  7  to  10  per  cent,  of  the 
oil.  Lignaloe  oil  is  an  important  Mexican  export  product. 

Star  anise  oil  is  derived  by  distillation  from  the  fresh  fruits 
of  star  anise  (Illicium  verwm),  native  to  China  and  Tonkin. 
It  is  also  widely  cultivated  in  various  parts  of  the  Tropics  and 
subtropics.  The  plant  is  propagated  by  seed  and  the  seedlings 
are  taken  from  the  nurseries  for  planting  at  the  age  of  I 
year.  The  tree  is  pyramidal  in  shape  and  attains  a  height  of 
25  to  50  feet.  The  tree  begins  bearing  at  10  years  of  age. 
Upon  distillation  the  fruits  yield  1.5  per  cent,  of  oil  which  is 
much  used  in  flavoring  liqueurs.  The  tree  fruits  twice  annually. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
TIMBERS  AND  WOODS 

FOR  the  most  part  the  general  character  of  tropical  forests 
is  very  different  from  that  of  forests  in  cold  climates.  One 
becomes  accustomed  to  forests  made  up  of  one  or  two  pre- 
dominating species  of  trees  with  only  an  occasional  bush  or 
tree  of  another  species  scattered  here  and  there  through  the 
otherwise  almost  pure  stand.  Some  of  the  familiar  combina- 
tions of  trees  are  oak  and  chestnut,  beech  and  maple,  pine  and 
hemlock,  etc.  Besides  these  mixed  stands  of  only  two  pre- 
dominant species  we  have  the  immense  areas  of  white  pine,  fir, 
spruce,  and  other  soft  woods  in  which  almost  no  other  species 
of  tree  occurs.  Tropical  forests  present  a  very  different  ap- 
pearance. Most  of  these  forests  consist  of  a  mixture  of  many 
species  of  trees.  In  some  cases  the  forest  is  composed  of 
several  hundred  species  of  trees,  with  no  one  species  covering 
any  part  of  the  forest  exclusively.  The  mixed  nature  of 
tropical  forests  has  offered  a  considerable  economic  disadvan- 
tage to  lumbermen  in  that  they  can  not  harvest  areas  con- 
tinuously but  must  seek  here  and  there  for  specimens  of  the 
particular  kind  of  tree  which  they  desire.  Not  all  tropical 
forests,  however,  are  of  such  a  mixed  nature.  There  are  quite 
pure  stands  in  large  areas  of  teak,  eucalyptus,  Albizzia,  wattle, 
candlenut,  algaroba,  oil  palm,  quebracho,  ohia,  etc. 

So  much  has  been  written  of  the  extremely  hard  and  heavy 
woods  which  occur  in  tropical  countries  that  a  misconception 
as  to  the  relative  importance  of  heavy  woods  in  the  Tropics 
has  taken  root.  It  is  quite  absurd  to  suppose  that  all  of  the 
important  tropical  timbers  are  heavier  than  water,  although 

290 


TIMBERS  AND  WOODS  291 

several  of  them  will  sink  in  water  even  after  cured  and  many 
more  are  heavier  than  water  in  a  green  condition.  To  assume, 
however,  that  mahogany,  ebony,  and  lignum  vitse  are  the  really 
important  timbers  of  the  Tropics  would  be  as  ridiculous  as 
to  assert  that  black  walnut,  quartered  oak,  and  curly  maple 
are  the  most  important  timbers  of  the  United  States.  Trop- 
ical timbers  and  woods  are  of  great  variety  and  of  great  im- 
portance. The  few  species  which  are  imported  to  Europe  and 
the  United  States  give  only  the  faintest  idea  of  the  extent  and 
variety  of  tropical  timbers. 

At  the  outset  it  may  be  well  to  state  that  in  the  Tropics,  just 
as  in  northern  climates,  soft  woods  are  of  vastly  wider  extent 
and  importance  than  hard  woods. 

The  family  Dipterocarpaceae  furnishes  the  most  important 
timbers,  especially  in  the  Oriental  Tropics.  It  is  a  large  fam- 
ily with  numerous  species  of  trees  which  are  universally  used 
in  tropical  countries  for  general  construction  purposes.  The 
sal  tree  (Shorea  robusta)  occurs  in  immense  areas  of  almost 
pure  stand  in  India.  This  tree  is  called  guijo  in  the  Philip- 
pines. It  furnishes  a  hard  and  moderately  heavy  wood,  used 
in  ship  building,  houses,  planks,  carriages,  and  for  numerous 
miscellaneous  purposes.  The  eng  tree  (Dipterocarpus  grandi- 
ftorus)  of  the  Philippines,  Borneo,  and  Malaya  Peninsula,  and 
called  apitong  in  the  Philippines,  furnishes  a  fairly  hard  and 
heavy  wood,  used  in  heavy  structural  work,  planks,  railroad 
ties,  and  many  other  purposes.  The  sal  and  eng  are  only 
two  examples  chosen  from  the  important  trees  of  this  family. 
There  are  more  than  100  species  of  Dipterocarpaceae  which 
are  used  commercially  in  the  Oriental  Tropics. 

The  legume  family  is  next  in  importance  as  a  source  of  tim- 
ber and  wood  and  stands  first  in  the  production  of  woods  for 
furniture  and  ornamental  purposes.  These  woods  are  often 
highly  colored  and  of  good  grain,  and  many  of  them  are 
widely  used  for  building  purposes  and  for  structural  work. 
For  example,  Acacia  catechu,  besides  yielding  a  cutch  from 


292  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

the  wood,  is  also  used  in  farm  implements  and  for  railroad 
ties.  Various  species  of  Albizzia  furnish  excellent  wood  for 
houses,  boat  building,  furniture,  tea  boxes,  farm  implements, 
bridges,  etc.  Golden  shower  (Cassia  fistula),  a  smooth-bark 
tree,  with  drooping  racemes  of  beautiful  yellow  flowers,  fur- 
nishes a  hard,  heavy  wood,  gray  or  red  in  color,  and  brittle, 
but  more  durable  in  the  soil  than  even  teak.  It  is  extensively 
used  for  fence  posts,  boat  spars,  carts,  etc. 

Rosewood  (Dalbergia  latifolia}  is  one  of  the  famous  legu- 
minous trees  of  India.  The  wood  is  extremely  hard  and 
heavy.  The  heartwood  is  of  a  purple  color  with  black  streaks 
and  with  a  rose-like  odor.  This  tree  furnishes  the  Indian 
rosewood  or  blackwood.  Among  the  other  Indian  trees  which 
produce  rosewood,  mention  may  be  made  of  D.  sissoo  and 
Pterocarpus  indicus.  The  Seychelles  rosewood  comes  from 
Thespesia  populnea,  which  is  called  "milo"  in  Hawaii.  Brazil 
supplies  a  large  part  of  the  rosewood  of  commerce  from  the 
tree  D.  nigra.  The  grades  of  rosewood  known  as  violet  wood 
and  king  wood  come  from  other  related  species  of  trees  in 
South  America  and  Madagascar.  In  fact,  the  rosewood  of 
commerce  is  derived  from  more  than  25  species  of  trees,  of 
which  D.  latifolia  is  the  best  Indian  species  for  cabinet  and 
furniture  purposes. 

Andaman  redwood,  named  from  its  origin  in  the  Andaman 
Islands,  is  derived  from  Pterocarpus  dalbergioides.  This  tree 
produces  a  red  heartwood  streaked  with  black  and  brown. 
The  wood  is  extensively  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  fur- 
niture, door  frames,  balustrades,  finishings  of  Pullman  cars, 
and  for  other  purposes. 

The  family  Ebenaceae  is  chiefly  noted  for  furnishing  the 
ebony  of  commerce.  There  are  about  30  species  in  this  fam- 
ily which  produce  ebony,  the  best  grade  coming  from  species 
of  Diospyros,  to  which  our  common  persimmon  belongs.  Eb- 
ony is  very  heavy,  extremely  hard,  and  of  a  black  or  dark 
greenish  color  streaked  with  black.  Coramandel  wood  is  a 


TIMBERS  AND  WOODS  293 

rare,  variegated  sort  of  ebony  obtained  from  the  tree  D. 
quasita.  Ebony  is  used  for  canes,  inlaying,  fine  cabinets  and 
furniture,  piano  keys,  violin  keyboards,  rulers,  and  other  sim- 
ilar purposes.  The  wood  is  very  fine-grained  and  does  not 
warp.  The  ebony  of  commerce  comes  largely  from  India, 
Ceylon,  Malaya,  Java,  the  Philippines,  Africa,  and  Mauritius. 

Lignum  vitae  (Guaiacum  officinalc)  is  a  tree  native  to  South 
America  and  the  West  Indies.  This  tree  furnishes  perhaps  the 
heaviest  of  all  woods.  The  fibers  are  much  twisted  .and  the 
color  of  the  wood  is  dark  brown  with  black  streaks.  It  is 
extremely  tough  and  is  therefore  used  in  the  manufacture 
of  bowling  balls,  rollers,  propeller  bushing,  and  for  similar 
purposes.  Lignum  vitae  is  becoming  scarce  and  substitutes 
for  it  are  much  sought.  Perhaps  the  best  substitute  for  this 
wood  is  mancono  (Xanthostemon  verdugonianus}  of  the  Phil- 
ippines. Mancono  wood  is  of  about  the  same  specific  gravity 
and  toughness  as  lignum  vitae  and  is  even  harder.  Many 
other  woods  are  also  used  as  substitutes  for  lignum  vitae,  espe- 
cially Calophyllum  inophyllum  and  Dodon&a  viscosa. 

Mahogany  (Swietenia  mahogani)  is  a  tree  native  to  Central 
America  and  South  America.  The  tree  was  first  brought  to 
Europe  by  Spanish  explorers.  This  and  related  species  have 
been  introduced  into  India  and  the  Philippines,  where  they  are 
cultivated  to  some  extent.  Mahogany  is  becoming  so  scarce 
that  about  25  substitutes  are  in  use  to  replace  it.  Mahogany 
is  the  most  highly  prized  of  cabinet  woods.  It  is  used  for 
fine  cabinet  purposes,  furniture,  and  piano  cases,  now  mostly 
as  a  veneer.  In  the  Philippines  Pterocarpus  indicus  yields  a 
wood  which  is  called  Philippine  mahogany.  This  wood  varies 
from  straw  color  to  blood  red.  The  trees  reach  such  size  that 
planks  25  feet  long  and  6  feet  wide  have  been  obtained.  It 
takes  a  high  polish.  Philippine  mahogany  is  used  extensively 
for  cigar  boxes. 

Kauri  pine  (Agathis  robusta),  of  New  Zealand  and  Queens- 
land, is  a  stately  conifer  150  feet  high,  often  with  a  fine  bole 


294  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

100  feet  long.  The  tree  is  peculiarly  free  from  defects  of  any 
kind.  The  kauri  pine  is  the  most  important  timber  tree  in 
New  Zealand.  The  tree  often  reaches  a  diameter  of  15  feet 
at  the  base.  The  lumber  is  extensively  exported  to  Europe 
and  is  used  for  all  kinds  of  building  purposes,  flooring,  siding, 
paneling,  doors,  etc. 

Karri  (Eucalyptus  versicolor)  and  jarrah  (E.  marginata) , 
both  native  of  Western  Australia,  attain  such  great  size  that 
huge  planks  of  unusual  width  can  be  obtained  from  them.  The 
wood  is  dark  red,  heavy,  and  hard.  It  is  resistant  to  teredo 
and  hence  has  been  much  used  as  piling.  Karri  and  jarrah 
woods  are  also  employed  for  paving  blocks  and  heavy  struc- 
tural work.  The  Australian  Government  made  a  large  exhibit 
of  these  woods  at  the  Portland  Exposition  for  the  purpose  of 
calling  attention  to  their  value  and  usefulness  for  various  pur- 
poses. 

Eucalyptus  has  been  extensively  planted  in  California  where 
it  was  introduced  in  1856.  These  trees  are  native  of  Australia, 
about  150  species  being  known.  Of  this  number  75  species  or 
more  have  been  grown  in  California,  but  90  per  cent,  of  the 
eucalyptus  in  that  State  is  blue  gum  (Eucalyptus  globulus). 
Eucalyptus  wood  is  used  in  California  for  fuel,  piling,  poles, 
railroad  crossties,  mine  timbers,  paving  blocks,  furniture,  coop- 
erage, tool  handles,  and  for  many  other  purposes.  The 
strength  and  durability  of  the  wood  are  quite  satisfactory. 
The  chief  disadvantage  of  eucalyptus  wood  is  that  it  warps 
and  checks  badly  in  the  seasoning. 

Sandalwood  is  obtained  from  Santalum  album  of  India  and 
Malaya  and  from  related  species  which  occur  in  Fiji,  Hawaii, 
and  elsewhere.  These  trees  furnish  the  yellow  or  white  san- 
dal wood  of  commerce.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Hawaiian 
Monarchy,  the  demand  for  this  wood  was  so  great  that  the 
tree  was  practically  exterminated  in  the  Territory.  The  san- 
dalwood  now  has  to  be  obtained  from  other  sources  in  India 
and  Malaya.  It  is  used  in  inlaid  work  and  for  boxes,  chests, 


TIMBERS  AND  WOODS  295 

fans,  and  for  various  other  ornamental  purposes.  Sandalwood 
chests  are  greatly  prized  on  account  of  their  reputed  immunity 
to  insect  attacks,  and  also  on  account  of  their  aromatic  and 
agreeable  odor.  Sandalwood  is  also  used  as  a  source  of  san- 
dalwood  oil  (which  is  discussed  under  oils)  and  is  burned  for 
incense.  For  this  purpose  it  is  ground  and  mixed  in  a  paste- 
like  material  used  by  the  Chinese  in  the  form  of  fumigating 
sticks.  Various  species  of  trees  have  been  used  as  substitutes 
for  the  sandalwood,  particularly  Exocarpus  latifolia.  in  the 
Philippines,  Erythroxylon  monogymnum  in  India,  and  Xime- 
nla  americana  in  South  America. 

Koa  (Acacia  koa),  of  Hawaii,  is  a  tall  leguminous  tree  with 
spreading  crown  and  irregular,  frequently  conical  trunk.  The 
trunk  of  the  koa  tree  is  often  6  to  8  feet  in  diameter  at  the 
base  but  may  taper  rapidly  to  a  relatively  small  diameter  at 
the  height  of  20  feet.  Koa  is  much  sought  for  use  in  making 
furniture,  cabinet  cases,  house  finishing,  canes,  fancy  boxes, 
and  calabashes.  It  is  exported  to  some  extent  to  England 
and  the  United  States  but  the  trees  are  becoming  scarce  and 
the  supply  will  hereafter  be  greatly  limited  unless  efforts  are 
made  to  cultivate  the  tree. 

Satinwood  (Chloroxylon  swietenia)  is  a  tree  native  to  India 
and  Ceylon,  which  furnishes  a  hard,  very  heavy,  and  durable 
wood  of  a  pale  yellow  color,  and  with  a  decided  sheen  when 
smoothed.  Satinwood  is  much  used  for  general  construction 
work  and  even  for  railroad  ties  in  India.  In  Europe  and  the 
United  States,  however,  satinwood  is  much  sought  for  inlay- 
ing, borders,  scrolls,  backs  of  brushes,  veneer  in  fine  furniture 
and  railway  cars,  and  for  similar  uses.  Another  form  of  sat- 
inwood is  obtained  in  the  West  Indies  from  species  of 
Xanthoxylum. 

West  Indian  cedar  (Cedrela  odorata),  of  the  West  Indies 
and  South  America,  is  a  tall,  handsome  tree  of  the  family 
Meliaceae,  with  pinnate,  opposite  leaves  and  greenish-white 
flowers.  The  wood  is  of  a  brick  red,  blood  red,  or  purple- 


296  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

red  color.  It  is  quite  immune  to  attacks  from  insects.  West 
Indian  cedar  is  soft,  fragrant,  and  easily  worked.  It  is  most 
extensively  used  for  making  cigar  boxes,  canoes,  and  panel- 
ing. 

Ohia  (Metrosideros  polymorpha),  of  Hawaii,  is  a  tall  tree 
which  occurs  in  pure  stands  on  the  mountain  slopes  of  Hawaii. 
The  trunks  are  angular  and  twisted,  furnishing  much  dif- 
ficulty in  the  saw  mill  and  occasioning  a  large  amount  of 
waste  in  sawing  up  the  logs  for  lumber.  Ohia  forests  are 
particularly  abundant  in  the  Puna  district  of  Hawaii  and  on 
the  windward  side  of  Maui.  A  serious  disease  of  unknown 
origin  caused  the  destruction  of  several  thousand  acres  of 
ohia  on  Maui.  On  the  Island  of  Hawaii  large  areas  of  ohia 
have  been  cut  for  the  manufacture  of  flooring,  paving  blocks, 
and  railroad  ties.  Experiments  by  one  of  the  western  rail- 
roads indicated  that  ohia  ties  were  very  satisfactory  and 
2,000,000  railroad  ties  were  ordered  on  the  strength  of  this 
experiment. 

Teak  wood  is  obtained  from  the  well  known  tree  Tectona 
grandis,  native  of  Malabar,  Java,  Burma,  Siam,  the  Philip- 
pines, and  neighboring  regions.  This  tree  belongs  to  the 
verbena  family.  It  bears  large,  ovate  leaves  and  racemes  of 
small  white  flowers.  The  heart  wood  is  of  a  golden  yellow 
color,  turning  brown,  and  finally  black  with  age.  Teak  is  the 
world's  standard  of  ship-building  timber.  It  is  moderately 
hard  and  extremely  useful  for  all  kinds  of  purposes.  Teak  is 
the  chief  export  of  Burma  and  India,  being  used  chiefly  for 
decks  of  steamers,  backing  of  armor  plates,  house  building, 
and  general  carpentry  work.  The  best  teak  is  obtained  from 
Malabar,  that  obtained  from  Java,  Burma,  and  Siam  being 
slightly  inferior  and  lighter  in  color  and  weight.  Teak  wood 
is  of  medium  hardness  and  possesses  a  characteristic  scent 
which  depends  upon  an  oil  in  the  wood.  On  account  of  the 
enormous  demand  from  all  parts  of  the  world  for  teak  wood, 
it  has  been  found  profitable  to  cultivate  this  tree  as  a  forest 


TIMBERS  AND  WOODS  297 

crop.  It  adapts  itself  readily  to  cultivation  and  makes  an 
excellent  growth  even  on  relatively  poor  soils. 

Several  species  of  trees  yield  a  soft  wood  of  peculiar  phys- 
ical properties  resembling  cork.  Chief  among  these  trees  is 
kapok,  Bonibax  malabarica,  Alstonia  scholaris,  Erythrina 
indica,  and  species  of  Anona,  Hibiscus,  and  Dyera.  Cork  ob- 
tained from  the  pith  of  so-called  corkwood  trees  should  be  dis- 
tinguished from  true  cork,  as  the  term  is  ordinarily  used, 
which  is  derived  from  the  bark  of  the  cork  oak  (Quercus  su- 
ber).  This  tree  occurs  in  largest  areas  in  Portugal,  Spain,  and 
France.  Various  other  tropical  trees  possess  a  bark  which  is 
suitable  for  use  as  cork.  The  world's  cork  production  amounts 
to  2,500,000  pounds  annually.  Practically  all  of  this  material 
comes  from  Portugal,  Spain,  France,  Italy,  Tunis,  Algeria, 
and  Morocco.  The  commercial  demand  for  cork  is  increasing. 

An  immense  and  rapidly  increasing  industry  is  developing 
in  the  utilization  of  vegetable  ivory  in  manufacturing  buttons. 
In  discussing  tropical  agriculture  we  may  therefore  refer  to 
the  button  crop  as  one  of  great  importance.  Vegetable  ivory 
is  obtained  from  a  considerable  number  of  palms,  particularly 
the  tagua  palm  (Phytelaphus  macrocarpa)  and  about  20  other 
species  belonging  to  the  same  genus.  In  addition  to  this  group 
of  tagua  palms,  a  number  of  other  species  furnish  a  vegetable 
ivory  of  considerable  value.  Among  these  species  is  Metroxy- 
lon  vitiense,  a  palm  native  to  Fiji.  The  nuts  from  this  tree 
furnish  a  vegetable  ivory  which  comes  on  the  market  under 
the  name  Australian  corozo.  About  500,000  pounds  of  these 
nuts  go  to  Europe  annually.  The  nuts  of  M.  amicarum  are 
also  used  for  the  same  purpose.  Another  palm,  known  as 
Hyphocna  thebaica,  yields  Abyssinian  corozo.  This  palm 
abounds  in  Nubia,  Abyssinia,  and  desert  parts  of  Africa  and 
Asia  Minor,  It  is  sometimes  called  the  king  of  the  desert.  The 
tree  bears  nuts  2  inches  long  and  I  inch  broad  from  which 
good  buttons  are  prepared,  but  the  material  is  not  so  hard  as 
the  nuts  of  the  other  species  mentioned  above.  In  addition  to 


£98  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

these  palms  we  may  mention  Borassus  HabelUformis,  Raphia 
vinifera,  Attalea  funifera,  and  Corypha  umbraculifera  as 
sources  of  vegetable  ivory  suitable  for  use  in  making  buttons. 

The  use  of  the  nuts  of  the  tagua,  or  vegetable  ivory  palm, 
for  the  manufacture  of  buttons,  dates  back  about  50  years, 
when  this  material  first  came  into  notice  from  nuts  shipped  out 
of  Ecuador.  After  a  few  experiments  with  the  hard  kernel 
of  these  nuts,  vegetable  ivory  sprang  into  great  favor  as  a  but- 
ton material.  The  industry  has  rapidly  increased  in  Ecuador 
until  at  present  about  20,000  tons  of  vegetable  ivory  nuts  are 
exported  annually  from  Ecuador  alone.  Constantly  increas- 
ing quantities  are  also  being  shipped  from  Colombia,  Panama, 
and  Central  America.  The  tagua  palm  occurs  chiefly  near  the 
sea  coast  from  Panama  to  Peru,  but  is  also  found  at  elevations 
as  high  as  2,500  feet.  The  palm  grows  slowly,  finally  attain- 
ing a  height  of  10  to  20  feet  or  rarely  30  feet.  The  leaves 
resemble  somewhat  those  of  the  coconut  palm.  The  first  flow- 
ers appear  at  the  age  of  3  or  4  years,  the  male  and  female  in- 
florescence differing  greatly  in  appearance.  The  male  flowers 
appear  in  a  cylindrical  spike  about  4  feet  long,  while  the  fe- 
male flowers  are  grouped  in  a  shorter  cluster.  The  tagua 
palm  bears  the  year  round,  flowers,  immature,  and  mature 
fruits  occurring  on  the  plant  at  the  same  time.  The  fruit  re- 
sulting from  the  female  inflorescence  is  in  the  form  of  a  large, 
spiny,  spherical  mass,  containing  60  to  90  nuts  in  clusters  of 
5  or  6.  The  spiny  burr-like  covering  of  the  fruit  opens  at  the 
bottom  when  mature,  allowing  the  nuts  to  fall  out. 

The  kernel  of  the  nut  does  not  reach  its  maximum  of  hard- 
ness until  the  nut  is  completely  mature.  As  a  rule,  therefore, 
the  nuts  are  gathered  from  the  ground,  since,  if  the  whole  fruit 
were  removed,  some  of  the  nuts  would  be  found  to  be  imma- 
ture. The  vegetable  ivory  palm  begins  bearing  at  6  years  of 
age  and  continues  to  bear  merchantable  nuts  for  50  to  100 
years.  The  ordinary  price  paid  to  the  laborer  who  gathers 
the  nuts,  is  50  cents  per  100  pounds, 


TIMBERS  AND  WOODS  299 

The  United  States  occupies  an  important  place  in  the  manu- 
facture of  buttons  from  vegetable  ivory.  Of  the  50,000,000 
pounds  of  vegetable  ivory  nuts  exported  from  South  Amer- 
ica annually,  more  than  27,000,000  pounds  come  to  the  United 
States.  There  are  reported  to  be  23  button  factories  using  this 
material  in  this  country,  the  chief  centers  being  Rochester, 
Brooklyn,  Newark,  and  Springfield,  Massachusetts. 

The  vegetable  ivory  nuts  are  somewhat  flattened  and  about 
2  inches  in  the  longest  diameter.  The  vegetable  ivory  nut 
contains  a  small  cavity  and  the  tissue  immediately  surrounding 
the  cavity  is  softer  and  more  likely  to  show  defects  than  the 
outer  portion  of  the  nut.  A  chip  to  be  used  for  making  but- 
tons is  sawed  from  either  side  of  the  nut  and  the  rest  of  the 
material  becomes  waste.  From  vegetable  ivory  nuts,  but- 
tons are  prepared  varying  in  size  from  %  to  1%  inches  in 
diameter.  The  process  of  sawing,  shaping,  polishing  and  dye- 
ing vegetable  ivory  buttons  has  been  carefully  developed  in  the 
button  factories  of  the  United  States  and  the  industry  is  con- 
stantly growing. 

In  the  technical  utilization  of  vegetable  ivory  for  button 
manufacture  it  has  been  found  that  there  is  a  shrinkage  of  650 
pounds  per  ton  in  drying  the  nuts  and  removing  the  shells. 
In  sawing  out  the  chips  for  use  in  button  manufacture  there 
is  a  waste  from  sawdust  and  cores  of  another  400  pounds.  A 
ton  of  nuts,  therefore,  yields  approximately  950  pounds  of 
material  available  for  making  buttons.  Recently  efforts  have 
been  made  to  find  a  use  for  this  waste  material.  Vegetable 
ivory  sawdust  has  been  used  in  Germany  as  an  adulterant  of 
coffee  along  with  ground  date  seeds  and  other  material.  An 
analysis  of  vegetable  ivory  sawdust  shows  that  it  contains  10.6 
per  cent,  of  water,  1.95  per  cent,  ash,  0.96  per  cent,  fat,  3.28 
per  cent,  protein,  and  83.21  per  cent,  fiber  and  nitrogen-free 
extract.  A  test  of  this  material  as  cattle  feed  at  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Experiment  Station  indicated  that  it  is  fairly  di- 
gestible and  possesses  some  value  as  a  feed. 


300  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

This  brief  discussion  of  tropical  timbers  and  woods  has 
taken  account  merely  of  a  few  of  the  most  important  and 
interesting  ones,  particularly  from  the  viewpoint  of  their  utili- 
zation in  the  United  States.  As  already  indicated,  the  Tropics 
produce  a  very  large  number  of  trees  of  commercial  impor- 
tance. The  Philippine  forests  alone  contain  more  than  2,500 
species  of  trees,  of  which  at  least  400  are  used  for  economic 
purposes  in  Manila  and  elsewhere  in  the  islands.  Only  6  or  8 
of  these  species,  however,  are  really  of  great  importance  as 
commercial  sources  of  timber  and  wood.  The  timber  resources 
of  our  other  tropical  possessions  are  of  much  less  importance. 
In  Hawaii,  practically  the  only  export  timber  is  obtained  from 
ohia  and  koa,  the  sandalwood  tree  being  practically  extermi- 
nated. 


CHAPTER   XX 
LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS 

LEGUMES  occupy  as  important  a  place  in  the  ration  of  the 
inhabitants  and  live  stock  of  the  Tropics  and  in  the  fertility 
of  the  tropical  soils  as  is  filled  by  these  plants  in  northern 
climates.  Many  of  the  familiar  legumes  of  the  United  States 
are  found  growing  to  some  extent  in  most  tropical  countries, 
but  the  list  of  leading  legumes  in  the  Tropics  is  quite  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  United  States.  In  tropical  countries 
there  is  much  greater  predominance  of  leguminous  trees  and 
shrubs.  Many  of  the  large  forest  and  ornamental  trees  are 
leguminous.  One  need  only  mention  tamarind,  Poinciana, 
algaroba,  and  the  numerous  species  of  Acacia,  Cassia,  Albiz- 
zia,  and  Pterocarpus,  as  well  as  the  numerous  shrubby  and 
half-shrubby  legumes  of  lesser  economic  importance. 

A  great  variety  of  native  grasses  are  used  for  various 
economic  purposes  in  the  Tropics.  There  are  certain  species 
of  grasses,  however,  which  have  become  of  almost  world-wide 
distribution,  at  least  in  tropical  countries,  and  attention  is 
given  in  this  chapter  chiefly  to  these  important  species  of 
almost  universal  distribution  rather  than  to  the  innumerable 
native  species  of  grass  which  are  locally  utilized  for  grazing 
or  forage  purposes. 

There  is  also  a  rather  large  list  of  miscellaneous  forage 
plants  and  products  which  merit  some  attention.  In  the  Ori- 
ental Tropics  nothing  is  wasted.  The  American  farmer  has 
little  conception  of  the  painstaking  economy  of  the  Oriental. 
The  strictest  economy  practiced  by  the  most  up-to-date  Ameri- 
can farmer  would  appear  to  the  Oriental  to  be  little  less  than 

301 


302  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

sheer  wanton  wastefulness.  No  part  or  portion  of  any  for- 
age plant  is  allowed  to  go  to  waste  in  the  Oriental  Tropics. 
All  this  material  is  utilized  either  for  human  food,  as  feed 
for  stock,  or  for  some  technical  purpose,  and  ultimately  every 
scrap  of  the  by-product  is  returned  to  the  soil  as  a  source  of 
fertility.  All  kinds  of  oil  cakes,  particularly  those  obtained 
from  oil  palm,  coconut,  peanut,  soy  bean,  Para  rubber,  etc., 
are  utilized  for  feed  and  for  other  purposes  to  the  fullest 
extent.  Moreover,  such  unpromising  materials  as  sisal  waste, 
obtained  in  the  decortication  of  sisal  fibers  add  to  the  list  of 
forage  materials.  Then,  too,  there  is  the  wide  use  of  ti  leaves, 
banana  trunks  and  leaves,  fern  trunks,  and  even  the  trunks  of 
the  papaya  tree.  All  of  these  materials  furnish  more  or  less 
valuable  additions  to  the  list  of  forage  products. 


LEGUMES 

Of  the  various  leguminous  trees  which  have  been  utilized 
for  commercial  purposes  in  the  Tropics,  the  algaroba  is  per- 
haps the  most  important.  This  tree,  in  the  form  in  which  it 
occurs  in  Hawaii,  is  commonly  referred  by  botanists  to  Proso- 
pis  juliftora.  Much  difference  in  opinion  prevails,  however, 
as  to  the  correct  botanical  name  for  the  tree,  and  until  this 
point  is  settled  it  may  as  well  be  known  by  the  scientific  name 
just  mentioned.  Algaroba  is  native  to  Central  America  and 
South  America,  and  related  forms  are  of  wide  occurrence  in 
Arizona,  New  Mexico,  and  Texas,  where  at  least  two  species 
are  known  under  the  common  names  mesquite  and  screw  bean. 

It  is  in  Hawaii,  however,  that  the  representative  tree  of 
this  group,  known  as  algaroba,  has  attained  its  greatest  sig- 
nificance. The  tree  reaches  a  height  of  15  to  50  feet  and  a 
trunk  diameter  up  to  30  inches.  The  cream-colored  or  pale 
yellow  flowers  are  borne  in  slender  axillary  spikes  or  catkins. 
The  leaves  are  bi-pinnate  and  the  pods  are  linear  or  curved, 
4  to  9  inches  long,  somewhat  flattened  but  thick,  and  slightly 


LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS 

constricted  between  the  seeds.  Both  spiny  and  spineless  forms 
of  this  tree  occur  and  some  indication  has  been  obtained  in 
Hawaii  that  the  spineless  condition  is  to  a  large  extent  heredi- 
tary. 

Some  idea  of  the  ease  with  which  this  tree  may  be  dis- 
tributed may  be  gained  by  a  brief  consideration  of  its  history 
in  Hawaii.  The  tree  was  first  brought  to  Hawaii  in  1828  and 
the  original  tree  still  stands  in  the  city  of  Honolulu.  It  has 
been  propagated  almost  entirely  by  seed  and  for  the  most  part 
without  any  attention  to  artificial  distribution.  The  pods  are 
a  favorite  food  of  all  kinds  of  live  stock  and  the  seeds  have 
been  for  the  most  part  distributed  through  the  agency  of  live 
stock.  The  pods  possess  a  firm,  fibrous  covering  which  in- 
closes a  sugary  pulp  of  molasses-like  consistency  in  the  cen- 
ter of  which  is  embedded  a  row  of  seeds,  each  seed  being 
inclosed  in  an  extremely  hard  case.  These  seed  cases  are  not 
digested  by  live  stock  but  are  merely  softened  somewhat  by 
the  digestive  juices.  The  seeds,  therefore,  pass  through  cattle, 
horses,  and  pigs  in  excellent  condition  for  germination.  In 
fact,  it  has  been  found  that  the  best  method  of  planting  al- 
garoba  seed  consists  in  feeding  the  whole  pods  to  cattle 
or  horses  and  then  planting  the  manure  of  these  animals  in 
places  where  it  is  desired  to  extend  the  distribution  of  the 
tree.  In  Hawaii,  this  tree  shows  by  its  distribution  how  effec- 
tive a  method  of  planting  trees  may  be  found  in  the  natural 
wandering  of  live  stock  upon  the  range. 

The  tree  thrives  best  at  sea  level  in  dry  regions.  Thus 
far  it  has  not  borne  crops  at  altitudes  above  2,000  feet.  More- 
over, the  algaroba  does  not  do  well  on  the  windward  or  rainy 
sides  of  the  Pacific  Islands.  It  will  endure  unusual  droughts 
of  long  extent.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  see  prickly  pears  and 
other  drought-resistant  plants  wilt  under  the  stress  of  severe 
drought,  while  algaroba  maintains  its  foliage  in  good  condi- 
tion and  appears  not  to  be  greatly  affected.  Most  of  the 
roots  of  this  tree  are  shallow  but  a  few  of  them  run  to  great 


304  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

depths,  sometimes  40  or  50  feet.  The  tree  has  been  quite 
widely  distributed  in  Australia,  India,  and  the  Philippines,  but 
it  has  nowhere  been  so  keenly  appreciated  as  in  Hawaii.  For 
many  years  difficulties  were  experienced  in  grinding  the  al- 
garoba  pods.  All  kinds  of  special  mills  and  drug  mills  were 
tested  for  this  purpose  without  success.  The  sugary  pulp 
surrounding  the  seeds  sooner  or  later  causes  the  accumulation 
of  a  hard  gum  upon  the  machinery  and  renders  the  operation 
of  the  machine  impossible.  The  Hawaii  Experiment  Station 
gave  considerable  attention  to  this  matter  in  the  hope  of  find- 
ing a  way  by  which  the  seed  could  be  ground  and  thus  make 
available  the  chief  source  of  protein  in  the  pods.  Finally  a 
very  simple  solution  of  the  problem  was  found.  If  the  pods 
be  kiln-dried  they  can  be  readily  ground  by  the  ordinary  alfalfa 
meal  machine.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  a  very  fine  spray  of 
water  is  allowed  to  play  upon  the  rollers  during  the  opera- 
tion of  the  machine,  the  algaroba  beans  can  be  readily  ground 
without  gumming  the  machinery.  In  the  natural  condition  the 
molasses-like  pulp  is  extremely  sticky.  When  slightly  moist- 
ened, however,  or  partly  dried,  the  material  offers  little  diffi- 
culty in  grinding. 

In  Hawaii  the  algaroba  occupies  an  area  of  50,000  acres 
or  more,  occurring  on  all  the  islands  of  the  Territory.  As 
soon  as  methods  for  grinding  the  beans  were  devised  a  large 
industry  sprang  up  in  preparing  this  feed.  The  industry  now 
amounts  to  about  $400,000  annually.  The  two  companies 
which  are  preparing  algaroba  feed  offer  about  $10  a  ton  for 
the  algaroba  beans  in  the  pod,  picked  and  delivered  by  the 
roadside.  This  makes  a  considerable  source  of  revenue  to 
men,  women,  and  children  of  the  poorer  classes.  The  ground 
algaroba  feed  gives  excellent  results  in  rations  for  cows, 
horses,  mules,  pigs,  or  chickens. 

Recently  some  experiments  have  been  carried  on  in  using 
the  ground  material  as  a  substitute  for  coffee.  When  the 
algaroba  bean  (and  this  term  always  means  the  whole  pod, 


LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS     305 

including  the  bean)  is  ground  and  roasted,  the  sugary  pulp 
is  caramelized  and  the  material  makes  a  fine  and  readily 
soluble  substance  of  good  flavor  which  can  be  used  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  coffee.  A  company  has  recently  been  organized  to 
put  this  material  on  the  market. 

Carob  bean  (Ceratonia  siliqua)  is  another  leguminous  trees 
of  much  importance  in  tropical  countries.  It  is  a  native  of 
the  Mediterranean  region.  Ordinarily  it  does  not  attain  as 
great  a  size  as  the  algaroba.  The  tree  bears  leathery  pods 
4  to  9  inches  long  and  i  inch  wide.  The  dark  green  leaves 
are  simply  pinnate.  The  tree  is  extremely  long-lived.  From 
the  age  of  20  to  60  years  each  tree  may  be  expected  to  bear 
200  to  300  pounds  of  pods  annually.  The  pulp  of  the  pod 
contains  50  to  60  per  cent,  of  sugar  and  this  material  is  much 
used  as  a  stock  feed  by  the  Arabs.  It  has  long  been  imported 
into  England  under  the  name  locust  bean  or  St.  John's  bread. 
The  pulp  has  also  been  used  from  the  earliest  antiquity  as  a 
human  food  and  to  some  extent  is  made  into  a  jam  like  tama- 
rind. The  carob  bean  has  been  introduced  into  California, 
where  it  appears  to  thrive  well. 

The  pigeon  pea,  also  sometimes  called  Porto  Rican  pea, 
on  account  of  its  wide  use  as  human  food  among  the  Porto 
Ricans,  is  an  erect  and  much  branched  legume  which,  if 
allowed  to  grow  for  several  years,  becomes  semi-shrubby.  Its 
botanical  name  is  Cajanus  indicus  and  the  plant  is  native  of 
India.  It  is  now  extensively  cultivated  throughout  the  Tropics. 
The  green  peas  are  used  as  human  food  in  place  of  garden 
peas  and  in  India  the  ripe  peas  are  also  used  as  human  food. 
The  ripe  peas  are  favorite  feed  for  chickens.  For  this  pur- 
pose it  is  merely  necessary  to  plant  the  chicken  yard  to  this 
crop.  The  plants  live  as  perennials  and  bear  pods  the  year 
round  which  shed  their  peas  so  as  to  make  an  almost  constant 
supply  of  feed  for  chickens.  The  plant  is  also  useful  at  the 
same  time  as  shade  for  poultry.  Pigeon  pea  is  also  extensively 
used  as  a  windbreak  and  as  a  green  manure.  The  plant  has 


306  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

been  quite  widely  grown  in  Hawaii  for  the  past  12  years. 
Exceptionally,  it  is  allowed  to  grow  for  8  to  10  years.  It 
may  attain  a  diameter  of  8  inches,  becoming  almost  a  small 
tree.  If  not  pruned  back  the  plants  readily  reach  a  height 
of  10  feet  within  2  years.  It  yields  its  first  crop  about  7  or  8 
months  from  the  time  of  planting.  The  pods  are  2  or  3  inches 
long  and  J^  inch  wide  and  contain  4  to  6  seeds.  Many  varie- 
ties of  pigeon  peas  are  known,  varying  in  color  from  light 
yellow  to  black  and  many  of  them  variously  speckled.  As  a 
low  hedge  plant  the  pigeon  pea  is  extremely  valuable  in  tropi- 
cal countries.  When  planted  about  gardens  and  pruned,  it 
develops  into  a  dense  hedge  somewhat  resembling  the  privet 
hedge  in  general  appearance.  In  this  form  it  is  useful  chiefly 
in  protecting  young  seedlings  and  delicate  plants  from  the 
effects  of  the  constant  trade  winds.  It  is  possible  to  obtain 
a  dense  pigeon-pea  hedge  2  or  3  feet  in  thickness  and  3  to  6 
feet  in  height.  As  a  green  manure  plant  it  gives  excellent 
results.  For  this  purpose  it  is  perhaps  best  planted  broadcast 
or  by  drill,  using  about  2  bushels  of  seed  per  acre.  The 
plants  are  readily  plowed  under  after  they  attain  a  height  of 
2  or  3  feet  and  the  vegetable  substance  promptly  decays  into 
a  form  available  as  plant  food.  The  pigeon  pea  is  fairly  free 
from  serious  insect  pests  except  the  small  blue  butterfly,  the 
caterpillars  of  which  live  in  the  pods. 

Chick  pea  (Cicer  arietinum),  also  native  of  India,  is  much 
more  widely  cultivated  in  the  Tropics  than  in  northern  cli- 
mates. It  is  commonly  called  garbanzo  by  the  Porto  Ricans 
and  Mexicans  who  are  particularly  fond  of  the  peas.  In 
India,  the  chick  pea  is  cultivated  in  large  areas,  especially 
for  its  seed,  which  is  used  as  a  stock  feed  and  to  some  extent 
for  adulterating  coffee.  The  chick  pea  is  an  annual,  attaining 
the  height  of  12  to  18  inches.  The  fuzzy  pods  contain  only 
I  or  2  peas. 

The  soy  bean  (Glycine  hispida),  a  legume  native  to  China 
and  Japan,  is  a  familiar  crop  in  most  of  the  Southern  and  Cen- 


LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS     307 

tral  States.  The  soy  bean  shows  a  great  variety  of  form  and 
habit  of  growth.  Some  varieties  are  raised  exclusively  for 
the  bean,  and  these  forms  shed  the  most  of  their  foliage 
before  the  beans  are  mature.  Some  of  these  dwarf  forms  do 
not  stand  higher  than  8  to  10  inches.  Other  varieties  are  better 
adapted  as  forage  plants  and  attain  a  height  of  2  or  3  feet, 
some  of  them  showing  a  trailing  habit.  In  tropical  countries 
the  soy  bean  is  raised  chiefly  for  the  production  of  soy-bean 
oil  and  soya  sauce.  The  crop  is  widely  cultivated  by  the 
Japanese  in  Hawaii,  but  the  great  local  demand  for  soy  beans 
by  the  soya  sauce  factories  makes  it  necessary  to  import  an 
additional  2,500,000  pounds  of  the  beans  annually.  The  dwarf 
early-maturing  varieties  produce  from  600  to  1,000  pounds  of 
beans  per  acre  and  the  yield  of  the  late,  tall  varieties  is  nearly 
twice  as  great. 

The  velvet  bean  is  one  of  the  favorite  leguminous  crops 
of  the  Tropics,  several  varieties  being  used  particularly  as  a 
green  manure  crop.  The  velvet  bean  is  now  referred  to  the 
genus  Stizolobium.  In  Hawaii  a  number  of  varieties  of  the 
velvet  bean  have  proved  to  be  satisfactory,  particularly  the 
Florida  velvet  bean,  the  Mauritius  or  Bengal  bean,  and  the 
Lyon  velvet  bean.  The  last  named  variety  comes  from  the 
Philippines,  where  the  beans  are  much  used  as  human  food. 
They  resemble  Lima  beans  in  appearance  and  flavor.  As  a 
green  manuring  crop  the  Lyon  velvet  bean  has  given  perhaps 
the  best  results.  It  matures  in  about  165  days  from  planting 
and  yields  an  immense  crop  of  green  material  for  plowing 
under.  The  crop  is  also  used  as  a  green  feed  or  hay  for 
cattle.  It  is  little  affected  by  serious  insect  pests. 

In  tropical  countries,  as  in  northern  climates,  alfalfa  is 
one  of  the  most  important  herbaceous  legumes.  It  occupies 
a  peculiarly  important  place  in  agriculture  in  the  Tropics  for 
the  reason  that  the  ordinary  clovers,  such  as  white,  red,  and 
alsike  clovers,  do  not  thrive  well  in  tropical  countries  except 
at  high  altitudes.  All  the  well  known  varieties  of  alfalfa 


308  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

have  been  grown  in  the  Tropics.  In  general,  Turkestan  and 
Arabian  alfalfa  have  given  better  results  in  point  of  yield 
and  in  quick  growth  after  cutting  than  the  common  alfalfa. 
Alfalfa  may  be  depended  upon  in  tropical  climates  to  yield 
a  crop  each  month  the  year  round.  It  is  therefore  not  so 
necessary  to  cure  the  crop  for  hay  as  in  cold  climates,  since 
it  is  possible  to  secure  a  continuous  supply  of  green  feed 
from  a  plantation  of  alfalfa.  Under  favorable  conditions  13 
crops  have  been  obtained  in  12  months. 

It  is  particularly  desirable  in  planting  alfalfa  in  the  Trop- 
ics to  avoid  infestation  with  dodder  as  far  as  possible.  Dod- 
der, like  the  alfalfa,  of  course,  grows  the  year  round  and 
spreads  with  sufficient  rapidity  to  be  a  very  serious  pest  if 
once  introduced  into  a  field  of  alfalfa.  While  it  is  customary 
to  harvest  10  to  13  crops  of  alfalfa  per  year  in  tropical  cli- 
mates, the  total  annual  acre  yield  is  not  higher  than  is 
obtained  in  favorable  localities  in  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  and 
California. 

If  it  were  not  for  the  unusually  serious  attacks  of  plant 
lice,  to  which  cowpeas  seem  to  be  particularly  susceptible,  this 
crop  would  be  perhaps  the  most  valuable  leguminous  crop 
for  forage  and  green  manuring  in  most  tropical  countries.  In 
some  localities,  however,  the  planting  of  cowpeas  is  a  hazard 
on  account  of  the  frightful  scourge  of  plant  lice.  A  fine 
crop  of  cowpeas  may  be  entirely  destroyed  in  the  course  of 
10  days.  In  some  instances,  the  whole  surface  of  the  plants, 
stems,  and  leaves  are  completely  covered  with  plant  lice.  Lady 
birds  and  parasitic  insects  multiply  with  great  rapidity,  but 
these  natural  enemies  of  the  plant  lice  seldom  succeed  in 
destroying  them  before  the  cowpea  crop  is  ruined. 

In  general,  it  has  been  found  that  the  drier  and  warmer 
regions  and  seasons  are  best  adapted  to  this  crop  and  it  should 
preferably  be  grown  without  irrigation.  The  largest  yields 
of  seed  and  forage  are  obtained  when  the  crop  is  drilled  in 
rows  and  well  cultivated  between  the  rows. 


LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS     309 

Jack  bean  (Canaualia  ensiformis)  is  an  annual,  bushy 
legume,  native  to  the  West  Indies  and  attaining  a  height  of 
2  to  5  feet.  It  bears  handsome,  purple  flowers  and  sword1- 
like  pods  9  to  15  inches  long  and  an  inch  or  more  wide,  with 
about  12  large  pure  white  beans  in  each  pod.  The  beans  bear 
a  brown  hilum.  The  jack  bean  is  cultivated  in  the  West  In- 
dies, southern  United  States,  Java,  Hawaii,  and  quite  gen- 
erally throughout  the  Tropics,  chiefly  as  a  green  manuring 
crop.  The  jack  bean  is  particularly  well  favored  for  growth 
in  tropical  countries  on  account  of  its  hardiness  and  relative 
immunity  to  insect  attacks.  Plant  lice  seldom  appear  in  in- 
jurious numbers  on  the  jack  bean.  The  plant  yields  from 
1 6  to  20  tons  of  green  forage  per  acre  and  about  1,200  pounds 
of  seed.  Usually  only  one  crop  is  obtained  from  a  single 
planting.  In  fact,  the  plant  is  considered  an  annual.  Occa- 
sionally, however,  a  good  rattoon  crop  has  been  obtained, 
particularly  if  the  first  cutting  is  made  before  the  plants  are 
mature.  Jack  bean  is  particularly  valuable  as  a  green  manure 
crop  for  planting  between  rows  of  sugar  cane,  coffee,  rubber, 
and  sisal,  where  it  can  be  plowed  under  as  a  source  of  plant 
food.  The  plant  is  quite  strongly  resistant  to  drought  but 
is  not  equal  to  velvet  beans  in  this  regard.  Perhaps  the 
largest  yields  are  obtained  by  planting  the  beans  in  rows 
18  inches  apart  and  6  to  10  inches  apart  in  the  individual 
row. 

The  sword  bean  (C.  gladiata)  has  often  been  grouped  to- 
gether with  the  jack  bean,  which  it  closely  resembles.  This 
plant  is  widely  cultivated  in  tropical  Asia,  Africa,  Hawaii, 
and  generally  in  the  Tropics.  The  plant  closely  resembles 
the  jack  bean,  but  the  pods  are  somewhat  shorter  and  wider 
and  the  beans  are  either  red,  gray,  or  white.  The  sword 
bean  is  somewhat  used  as  a  vegetable,  the  young,  green  pods 
and  beans  being  employed  for  this  purpose,  especially  in  In- 
dia, Ceylon,  Burma,  Japan,  and  Mauritius.  Otherwise,  the 
sword  bean  is  chiefly  used  as  a  cover  crop  and  as  forage  for 


310  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

cattle.  For  the  latter  purpose  it  is  superior  to  the  jack  bean, 
which  often  possesses  a  bitter  flavor. 

Crotalaria,  under  various  specific  forms,  occurs  everywhere 
in  the  Tropics.  One  of  these  species  is  sunn  hemp  (C. 
juncea),  which  is  discussed  under  fiber  plants  but  is  also  much 
used  as  a  cover  crop.  This  is  a  slender,  erect  species,  with 
conspicuous  yellow  flowers.  One  of  the  most  important  forms 
of  Crotalaria  for  use  as  a  green  manure  in  Hawaii  is  C.  sal- 
tiana,  which  has  in  recent  years  given  a  good  account  of 
itself  for  this  purpose.  This  form  of  Crotalaria  is  unusually 
hardy.  It  thrives  either  in  wet  or  dry  districts.  It  will  make 
a  fairly  good  crop  under  a  rainfall  of  20  inches  and  thrives 
abundantly  under  a  rainfall  of  200  inches.  The  seed  will 
germinate  promptly  without  attention  after  scattering  broad- 
cast upon  the  soil.  This  Crotalaria  is  not  useful  for  feed  but 
is  an  exceptionally  good  green  manuring  crop.  It  is  not  at- 
tacked by  insects,  except  the  blue  butterfly,  which  merely 
reduces  the  number  of  pods.  The  seed  of  the  plant  can  be 
readily  obtained  by  offering  children  10  cents  a  pound  for  it. 
This  species  of  Crotalaria  has  been  recently  used  with  pro- 
nounced success  as  a  green  manuring  crop  in  Hawaii  and 
elsewhere. 

The  kudzu  bean  (Pueraria  thunbergiana)  of  Japan  and 
China  is  quite  hardy  outside  of  the  Tropics.  It  is  a  perennial 
legume  with  large  starchy  roots.  The  plants  grow  only  a 
few  feet  during  the  first  season,  but  may  reach  a  length  of 
40  to  75  feet  during  the  second  year.  It  is  propagated  in 
Florida  by  cuttings  or  seed  and  is  used  as  a  cattle  pasture 
and  as  an  arbor  vine.  Moreover,  in  Japan  a  fine  grade  of 
starch  is  extracted  from  the  roots  for  special  use  in  con- 
fectionery. Kudzu  bean  yields  a  heavy  crop  of  hay  which 
contains  about  17  per  cent,  of  protein  and  30  per  cent,  of 
carbohydrates. 

The  adzuki  bean  (Phaseolus  angularis)  of  southeastern 
Asia  is  widely  grown  for  human  food  in  China,  Japan,  and 


LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS     311 

India.  It  is  often  cultivated  in  rotation  between  crops  of 
rice.  The  adzuki  bean  is  an  erect,  bushy  legume  I  to  3  feet 
high.  The  yield  averages  30  to  40  bushels  of  beans  per  acre. 

Guar  (Cyamopsis  tetragonoloba)  of  the  East  Indies  is  an 
erect,  single-stemmed  or  branching  annual  legume.  It  is 
used  in  India  chiefly  as  a  green  feed  for  cattle,  but  the  dry 
beans  are  also  used  in  fattening  cattle  and  the  green  beans 
as  human  food,  especially  in  curries.  Guar  is  extremely 
resistant  to  drought.  It  grows  3  to  6  feet  high.  This  plant 
is  cultivated  to  some  extent  in  Oklahoma,  Texas,  California, 
and  other  Southern  States. 

Bonavist  bean,  also  called  lablab  bean  (Dolichos  lablab), 
of  India,  is  a  vigorous,  perennial,  woody,  climbing  legume, 
with  white,  purple,  or  red  flowers,  flat  pods,  and  white  or 
black  beans  with  a  conspicuous  hilum.  The  pods,  together 
with  the  beans,  are  consumed  as  human  food  by  the  Orientals, 
especially  during  the  young  and  tender  stages.  Lablab  bean 
gives  some  promise  as  a  hay  and  forage  crop  in  Texas,  Florida, 
and  Cuba. 

Kulthi  (D.  biflorus)  of  India  is  an  annual  running  vine 
cultivated  in  India  chiefly  as  human  food  and  also  for  cattle. 
The  dried  beans  are  used  as  human  food,  while  the  hay  is 
fed  to  cattle.  As  a  forage  crop  this  plant  has  given  good 
results  in  Texas.  In  Hawaii  the  yield  averages  about  1,400 
pounds  of  seed  per  acre. 

Moth  bean  (Phaseolus  aconitifolius)  of  India  is  an  annual, 
densely  branching  legume  about  18  inches  tall,  with  a  spread 
of  2  or  3  feet.  The  moth  bean  is  grown  in  India  for  the 
dried  beans  which  are  used  as  human  food.  In  the  Pan- 
handle district  of  Texas,  this  bean  yields  2  tons  of  hay  per 
acre,  which,  in  most  respects,  has  proved  to  be  superior  to 
cowpea  hay. 

The  winged  bean  (Psophocarpus  tetragonolobus)  of  Malaya 
is  a  vigorous,  perennial  climber  with  showy  blue  flowers  and 
curious  square  pods  4  to  9  inches  long.  The  green  pods  and 


812  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

beans  are  highly  relished  as  human  food  in  India.  The  plant 
is  also  cultivated  in  Burma  for  its  large  starchy  roots. 

Mungo  bean  (Phaseolus  mungo)  is  a  small,  herbaceous 
legume  native  to  India.  It  is  now  quite  generally  cultivated 
in  tropical  countries.  There  are  many  varieties  of  mungo, 
the  seeds  varying  in  color  from  red  to  yellow  or  green.  The 
seeds  are  extremely  small  and  are  borne  in  slender  pods.  The 
plant  is.  erect  or  semi-erect  in  habit,  attaining  a  height  of  I 
to  2  feet.  Mungo  beans  are  used  in  rotation  between  rice 
crops  in  Japan,  where  the  seeds  are  also  used  in  preparing 
a  fondant  for  fine  confectionery.  The  bean  is  also  exten- 
sively used  as  human  food  in  India.  Moreover,  in  Hawaii, 
the  mungo  bean  appears  to  be  a  promising  crop. 

A  closely  related  species  (P.  semierectus)  is  coming  into  use 
in  Hawaii  as  a  green  manure.  This  plant  is  a  much  branched 
creeper,  bearing  handsome  dark  purple  flowers  and  long, 
slender,  terete  pods  containing  minute  beans.  Under  favor- 
able conditions  it  produces  a  large  amount  of  vegetable  sub- 
stance and  seems  to  have  much  value  as  a  green  manure 
crop. 

GRASSES 

Among  the  numerous  grasses  cultivated  in  tropical  coun- 
tries, a  prominent  place  must  be  given  to  Para  grass  (Panicum 
barbinode),  a  native  of  South  America.  This  species  is  com- 
monly called  Panicum  grass  in  Hawaii,  where  it  was  intro- 
duced from  Fiji  in  1902,  after  which  it  became  rapidly 
distributed  over  the  Territory.  Para  grass  is  a  coarse,  long- 
stemmed  grass  which  readily  roots  at  the  joints.  It  is  widely 
cultivated  throughout  the  Tropics  as  a  forage  grass  and  for 
this  purpose  is  extremely  valuable.  After  a  planting  has 
once  been  established  it  requires  little  or  no  attention,  except 
to  cut  a  crop  at  frequent  intervals.  It  is  not  drought  re- 
sistant, and  therefore  does  not  yield  heavily  in  dry  regions 
unless  irrigation  water  is  applied.  The  Para  grass  does  not 


LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS     313 

seed  profusely  and  in  many  localities  the  seed  seems  to  be 
sterile.  For  this  reason  it  is  almost  universally  propagated 
by  sections  of  the  long,  jointed  stems  which  strike  root  read- 
ily when  planted  in  the  soil.  Para  grass  is  not  only  valuable 
for  green  forage  and  hay  but  has  recently  been  employed  in 
Hawaii  as  a  green  manure  crop.  The  pineapple  growers  have 
found  that  if  segments  of  the  stems  of  Para  grass  are  scattered 
broadcast  over  a  field  of  pineapples  after  the  second  rattoon 
crop  of  fruit  has  been  removed,  it  is  possible  to  cut  up  the 
pineapple  leaves  and  plant  the  Para  grass  simultaneously  by 
running  over  the  field  with  a  disk  harrow  heavily  loaded. 
For  forage  purposes  Para  grass  is  commonly  propagated  by 
planting  the  sections  of  the  stem  a  few  inches  apart  in  rows 
i  to  2  feet  apart. 

The  Guinea  grass  (P.  maximum)  is  a  related  species,  na- 
tive to  Africa,  but  of  quite  different  habit  of  growth.  This 
grass  has  become  widely  distributed  throughout  the  West 
Indies  and  various  other  parts  of  the  Tropics.  It  is  readily 
propagated  by  seed  or  by  division  of  the  roots.  The  Guinea 
grass  has  an  upright  habit  of  growth  and  sometimes  attains 
a  height  of  6  to  10  feet.  Such  coarse  growth  is  run  through 
a  feed  cutter  before  being  used  as  a  forage  for  cattle  or  horses. 
From  4  to  8  cuttings  annually  may  be  obtained.  In  propagat- 
ing this  grass  by  other  methods  than  by  seed  it  is  customary 
to  plant  root  divisions  in  rows  5  feet  apart  and  about  2  feet 
apart  in  the  row.  The  Guinea  grass  has  the  habit  of  a  bunch 
grass. 

Rhodes  grass  (Chloris  gayana),  of  South  Africa,  is  an  ex- 
tremely valuable  hay  grass  in  tropical  and  semi-tropical  re- 
gions. For  this  purpose  it  is  largely  used  not  only  in  Africa 
but  also  in  Australia,  Hawaii,  and  various  other  tropical  re- 
gions. A  planting  of  Rhodes  grass  will  yield  satisfactory 
crops  of  hay  for  a  period  of  7  to  10  years,  after  which  the 
planting  must  be  renewed.  Rhodes  grass  is  extremely  re- 
sistant to  drought.  It  has  an  upright  habit  of  growth,  reaching 


314  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

a  height  of  2  to  5  feet.  In  newly  planted  fields  the  plants  put 
out  horizontal  runners  which  may  extend  6  to  8  feet  from 
the  parent  plants.  These  runners  root  at  the  joints  and 
thus  aid  the  rapid  extension  of  the  plant.  The  stems  of 
Rhodes  grass  are  fine  and  the  quality  of  hay  appears  to  be 
excellent.  The  seed  may  be  sown  broadcast  or  preferably 
by  drill.  About  2  pounds  of  seed  are  required  for  an  acre. 

Natal  red-top  (Tricholcena  rosea)  is  an  erect,  perennial 
grass  with  graceful,  rose-pink,  flowering  panicles.  When  in 
full  flowering  it  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  grass  crops. 
Natal  red-top  is  primarily  a  hay  grass  and  does  not  with- 
stand overgrazing.  The  grass  will  reach  a  height  of  2  feet 
about  3  months  from  the  time  of  seeding.  The  young  growth 
is  tender  but  old  stems  become  tough  and  wiry.  Unless  the 
season  is  unusually  dry,  from  4  to  6  crops  may  be  expected 
annually.  On  the  Island  of  Kauai,  Natal  red- top  has  been 
found  to  be  a  very  valuable  grass  when  planted  together  with 
water  grass. 

Water  grass  (Paspalum  dilatatum),  a  native  of  tropical 
America,  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  and  important  grasses 
in  tropical  countries.  It  was  introduced  from  Australia  into 
Hawaii  about  30  years  ago,  where  it  has  become  a  favorite 
grazing  grass  on  the  cattle  ranches.  At  sea  level,  especially 
on  the  leeward  coasts  of  the  islands  in  the  trade-wind  belt, 
water  grass  makes  a  good  growth  only  during  and  following 
the  rainy  season.  The  best  results  are  obtained  from  this 
grass  in  regions  where  the  rainfall  ranges  from  60  to  120 
inches  annually.  As  a  grazing  grass  it  has  given  an  excel- 
lent account  of  itself  wherever  it  has  been  used.  On  the 
Island  of  Kauai,  it  has  been  found  that  water  grass,  planted 
at  distances  of  6  to  10  feet  apart  both  ways  in  dense  areas  of 
the  worthless  Hilo  grass  (P.  conjugatum),  will  crowd  out 
and  entirely  displace  the  Hilo  grass  within  2  or  3  years. 

The  seed  of  the  water  grass  is  often  of  poor  quality.  In 
some  tests  only  25  per  cent,  or  even  less  is  capable  of  germina- 


LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS     315 

tion.  For  this  reason  it  is  necessary  to  use  6  to  10  pounds 
in  seeding  an  acre.  Moreover,  a  reasonable  amount  of 
moisture  is  necessary  for  the  successful  germination  of  the 
seed. 

Bermuda  grass  is  an  extremely  hardy,  vigorous,  and  useful 
grass  in  tropical  countries.  In  Hawaii,  it  was  introduced  in 
1835  and  now  covers  a  larger  area  in  the  Territory  than  any 
other  single  species  of  grass.  In  Hawaii,  the  Bermuda  grass 
is  commonly  known  as  manienie,  from  the  Spaniard  Marin, 
who  is  supposed  to  have  introduced  it.  It  is  not  valuable  as 
a  hay  grass.  In  fact,  it  seldom  reaches  a  height  suitable  for 
cutting.  Thousands  of  acres  of  grazing  land,  however,  would 
be  practically  barren  if  it  were  not  for  the  Bermuda  grass. 
Moreover,  Bermuda  grass  is  the  only  grass  which  has  proved 
satisfactory  for  lawn  purposes.  It  remains  green  the  year 
round  and  is  extremely  sturdy  in  contesting  the  ground  with 
weeds.  On  the  Island  of  Lanai,  5,000  acres  of  wind-eroded 
soil  was  saved  by  planting  Bermuda  grass.  This  experiment 
was  interesting  as  showing  the  great  resistance  of  Bermuda 
grass  to  drought.  The  5,000  acres  of  land  had  been  eroded 
to  a  depth  of  several  feet  by  the  action  of  the  fierce  trade 
winds  which  continuously  blow  through  the  channel  between 
Maui  and  Molokai.  As  a  last  resort,  Bermuda  grass  was 
tried  as  a  possible  means  of  preventing  further  erosion.  Sec- 
tions of  the  stem  of  this  grass  were  planted  at  distances  of 
8  feet  apart  both  ways  over  the  whole  area.  The  rainfall 
in  this  region  is  extremely  low  and  for  a  period  of  2  years  it 
was  still  doubtful  whether  the  grass  would  grow.  The  whole 
area,  however,  is  now  completely  covered  with  a  dense  mat 
of  Bermuda  grass  serving  as  good  grazing  ground  for  cattle 
and  sheep. 

A  large  form  of  Bermuda  grass  which  has  been  called  giant 
Bermuda  grass  was  recently  found  in  Mississippi,  and  has 
been  distributed  from  there  to  various  tropical  and  subtropical 
countries.  It  is  propagated  in  the  same  way  as  the  ordinary 


316  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

form  of  Bermula  grass,  namely,  by  stem  cuttings.  Some  stems 
of  the  giant  Bermuda  grass  were  received  by  the  Hawaii  Sta- 
tion and  planted  in  a  dry  locality  on  the  station  grounds.  The 
plant  made  an  astonishingly  rapid  growth,  throwing  out  run- 
ners 10  feet  long  within  a  period  of  2  months.  From  this 
plat  material  was  sent  to  several  ranchers,  who  reported  good 
results  in  both  dry  and  wet  districts. 

Sudan  grass  during  the  past  few  years  has  become  familiar 
to  all  readers  of  agricultural  literature  on  account  of  the 
great  promise  which  it  has  given,  especially  in  the  Southern 
States.  This  grass,  as  is  generally  known,  is  essentially  a 
variety  of  Johnson  grass  but  without  its  underground  root- 
stock.  It  is  native  of  Africa.  The  grass  was  made  the 
subject  of  experiment  at  the  Hawaii  Experiment  Station, 
where  it  grew  to  a  height  of  5  feet  and  began  flowering  within 
55  days  from  seeding.  The  seed  has  been  distributed  to  all 
of  the  islands  and  favorable  reports  have  been  received  re- 
garding it  from  all  localities  except  those  at  considerable  alti- 
tudes. Neither  the  Sudan  grass  nor  the  closely  related  Tunis 
grass  appear  to  thrive  well  at  high  altitudes.  The  Sudan 
grass  rattoons  readily  provided  a  reasonable  amount  of 
moisture  is  furnished.  One  of  the  difficulties  of  growing  the 
grass  for  seed  in  the  Tropics  is  the  extreme  fondness  which 
birds  show  for  this  seed.  Sudan  grass  grows  to  a  height  of 
6  to  ii  feet,  but  even  the  coarse  stems  of  the  rankest  forms 
of  the  grass  appear  to  be  highly  palatable  to  horses  and  cat- 
tle. The  Tunis  grass  is  a  closely  related  variety,  very  similar 
to  the  Sudan  grass,  but  it  has  a  long  narrow  panicle. 

MISCELLANEOUS  FORAGE  PLANTS 

Mention  has  already  been  made  at  the  beginning  of  this 
chapter  of  some  of  the  miscellaneous  plants  and  materials 
used  for  forage  purposes  in  tropical  countries.  It  might  be 
well  to  give  details  regarding  a  few  of  these  miscellaneous 


LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS     317 

plants  which  are  of  special  significance  in  certain  tropical 
regions. 

The  prickly  pear  is  familiar  to  all  persons  who  have  trav- 
eled in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  United  States.  The  ordi- 
nary prickly  form  of  this  plant  is  not  considered  satisfactory 
as  a  cattle  food  until  the  spines  have  been  burned  off.  Vari- 
ous methods  have  been  devised  in  Arizona  and  elsewhere  for 
economically  burning  off  the  spines.  Several  species  of  Opun- 
tia,  or  prickly  pear,  occur  in  large  areas  in  tropical  cbuntries. 
In  parts  of  Australia  the  plant  has  become  a  veritable  scourge 
and  large  rewards  have  been  offered  for  a  satisfactory  means 
of  eradicating  it. 

In  Hawaii  the  prickly  pear  bears  two  forms  of  fruit — 
red  and  white.  These  fruit  are  of  a  rather  agreeable  flavor 
and  are  somewhat  used  as  human  food.  It  requires  extreme 
care  in  preparing  them  for  use,  however,  on  account  of  the 
danger  of  getting  the  minute  spines  mixed  with  the  fruit.  The 
prickly  pear  is  one  of  the  important  forage  crops  on  some  of 
the  cattle  ranches  in  Hawaii.  There  are  about  3,000  acres 
of  this  plant  on  the  Island  of  Maui,  and  10,000  acres  or  more 
on  the  leeward  side  of  Hawaii.  Cattle  and  horses  eat  this 
cactus  chiefly  during  the  dry  season  when  other  feed  is  want- 
ing. It  is  considered  an  emergency  feed,  but  during  the  past 
15  years  two  or  three  droughts  have  occurred  in  which  cattle 
were  maintained  for  several  months  almost  exclusively  on  the 
prickly  pear.  All  tender  parts  of  the  plants  within  reach  of 
the  cattle  were  eaten  by  them  and  it  became  necessary  for 
the  cowboys  to  cut  off  higher  branches  in  order  to  save  the  cat- 
tle. The  prickly  pear  in  Hawaii  is  extremely  spiny,  but 
cattle  and  horses  have  learned  to  eat  the  plants  apparently 
without  harm. 

Recently  attention  has  been  given  to  a  smaller  and  almost 
spineless  prickly  pear  which  was  introduced  into  Hawaii  by 
Marin.  This  species  attains  a  height  of  6  to  8  feet  and  is 
densely  branched.  The  slabs  commonly  have  a  length  of  8  to 


318  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

10  inches  and  a  width  of  3  to  4  inches.  The  species  appears 
to  be  more  resistant  than  the  common  spiny  form  of  prickly 
pear.  In  a  comparative  test  of  Marin  cactus,  ordinary  spiny 
prickly  pear,  and  various  varieties  of  Burbank  spineless  cac- 
tus on  the  Island  of  Kahoolawe,  the  Marin  cactus  was  the 
only  one  which  successfully  established  itself.  Moreover,  the 
Marin  cactus,  under  ordinary  conditions,  grows  3  or  4  times 
as  fast  as  the  common  forms  of  spineless  cactus. 

Honohono  is  the  Hawaiian  name  for  Commelina  nudiflora, 
a  succulent  plant  closely  related  to  the  common  Tradescantia 
or  wandering- jew.  It  grows  as  a  weed  in  practically  all  of  the 
rainy  districts  of  the  Territory.  In  fact,  on  some  of  the  sugar 
plantations  it  has  been  found  impossible  to  control  or  eradi- 
cate it  by  any  other  method  than  the  use  of  a  spray  of  ar- 
senite  of  soda.  Honohono  has  been  found  to  be  an  extremely 
valuable  feed  for  dairy  cows.  For  this  purpose  it  is  perhaps 
most  extensively  utilized  in  the  region  about  Glenwood  on  the 
Island  of  Hawaii.  There  are  several  thousand  acres  covered 
with  honohono  in  that  region.  It  has  been  found  that  the 
plant  rattoons  very  promptly  after  cutting  and  that  the  yield 
is  readily  maintained,  particularly  if  a  light  dressing  of  manure 
is  applied  immediately  after  cutting.  In  some  experiments 
recently  conducted  in  that  section,  it  was  found  that  12  crops 
per  year  could  be  obtained,  totaling  a  yield  of  200  tons  of  green 
material  per  acre.  Judged  by  its  chemical  composition,  hono- 
hono is  not  particularly  nutritious  since  it  contains  about  90 
per  cent,  of  water.  It  is  an  extremely  valuable  forage  plant, 
however,  in  the  section  where  it  is  used  chiefly  as  a  dairy  feed, 
for  the  reason  that  most  grasses,  except  perhaps  Para  grass, 
do  not  thrive  well  in  the  heavy  rainfall  of  that  district.  The 
average  rainfall  of  the  district  in  question  is  about  250  inches 
per  year.  C.  benghalensis  is  much  used  for  the  same  purposes 
in  Ceylon. 

Rainy  districts  in  the  Tropics  are  noted  for  the  immense 
and  graceful  tree  ferns  which  develop  under  such  conditions. 


LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS     319 

These  ferns  reach  a  height  of  6  to  20  feet  or  more,  rarely  50 
feet,  and  a  trunk  diameter  of  6  to  12  inches.  These  immense 
trunks  are  filled  with  a  soft  starchy  pulp.  An  analysis  of 
the  common  tree  fern  of  Hawaii  (Cibotium  chamissoi)  shows 
that  the  trunk  contains  69.38  per  cent,  moisture,  1.12  per  cent, 
protein,  4.23  per  cent,  sugar,  and  20.9  per  cent,  starch. 

In  the  region  about  the  volcano  Kilauea  large  forests  of 
these  tree  ferns  occur  and  in  this  region  a  rather  novel  use 
has  been  made  of  the  trunks,  particularly  in  feeding  pigs.  It 
was  well  known  that  the  trunks  were  not  particularly  palatable 
in  an  uncooked  condition.  Large  cooking  vats  were  con- 
structed and  put  in  use  for  preparing  this  material  as  a  hog 
feed.  For  a  distance  of  3  or  4  miles  about  the  living  crater 
of  the  volcano  there  are  numerous  cracks  from  which  live 
steam  issues  constantly.  It  was  soon  found  that  by  preparing 
a  grill  and  placing  it  across  one  of  these  cracks  the  immense 
fern  trunks  could  be  placed  upon  the  grill  and  allowed  to 
remain  until  they  were  thoroughly  cooked  in  live  steam.  The 
value  of  fern  roots  as  a  pig  feed  is  well  understood  in  Oregon 
and  Washington,  where  pigs  are  pastured  on  the  large  areas 
of  cut-over  lands  in  which  the  bracken  fern  grows  profusely. 

In  all  sugar-cane  districts,  cane  tops  or  cane  trash  are  an 
important  source  of  forage.  When  the  sticks  of  cane  are  cut 
and  cleaned  for  the  mill,  the  leaves  and  tips  of  the  stems  are 
cut  off.  This  material  contains  7447  per  cent,  of  water,  1.54 
per  cent,  of  protein,  0.42  per  cent,  of  fat,  14.71  per  cent,  of 
nitrogen- free  extract,  7.31  per  cent,  of  fiber,  and  1.55  per 
cent,  of  ash.  The  ratio  of  the  weight  of  cane  tops  and  cane 
trash  to  the  weight  of  the  sticks  of  cane  has  never  been  very 
accurately  determined,  and  under  different  conditions  varies 
considerably.  It  may  be  fairly  estimated,  however,  that  with 
a  yield  of  50  tons  of  cane  per  acre  there  are  from  10  to  25 
tons  of  cane  tops  and  leaves.  This  indicates  at  once  the 
enormous  amount  of  forage  material  which  is  available  in  the 
neighborhood  of  sugar-cane  plantations. 


320  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

As  already  indicated  in  the  chapter  on  sugar  cane,  all  this 
material  has  been  burned  on  many  plantations,  particularly 
in  Hawaii.  It  is  only  recently  that  the  frightful  wastefulness 
of  this  practice  has  been  realized.  Cane  tops  and  trash  are 
now  largely  plowed  under,  but  a  vast  amount  of  material  is 
still  available  as  stock  feed.  Cane  tops  or  even  the  whole 
plant  may  be  ensiled  as  easily  as  corn  or  any  other  common 
silage  material.  No  difficulty  is  experienced  in  fermentation 
or  spoiling  if  the  material  is  handled  properly  in  satisfactory 
silos.  Cane  silage  develops  no  higher  percentage  of  acid  than 
corn  silage.  The  material  when  properly  fermented  has  a 
sweet-acid,  and  very  agreeable  flavor.  The  odor  is  not  so 
unpleasant  as  that  of  corn  silage.  Cane  tops  or  the  whole 
cane  may  be  made  into  silage  by  itself,  or  mixed  with  Para 
grass  or  other  available  materials.  In  Florida  considerable 
attention  has  been  given  to  this  matter,  and  particularly  with 
Japanese  cane,  a  variety  grown  in  Florida  almost  exclusively 
for  forage  purposes.  Japanese  cane  is  well  adapted  for  use 
as  a  forage  crop  in  all  of  the  Gulf  States.  It  has  been  found 
to  furnish  also  satisfactory  pasturage  if  stock  are  not  allowed 
to  remain  in  the  field  too  late  in  the  spring.  In  Florida,  Japa- 
nese cane  has  proved  to  be  one  of  the  cheapest  sources  of 
silage.  It  may  also  be  harvested  and  cured  like  corn  fodder. 
It  is  most  nutritious  if  allowed  to  stand  until  the  danger  of 
frost  appears.  The  yield  of  Japanese  cane  in  Florida  has 
varied  from  5  to  27  tons  per  acre. 

Silos  did  not  come  into  much  use  in  the  Tropics  until  quite 
recently.  Their  importance,  however,  is  gradually  increasing. 
In  Hawaii,  for  example,  many  silos  have  been  built  the  past 
5  years.  These  silos  are  of  various  types,  some  of  them  being 
constructed  of  reen  forced  concrete,  while  others  are  in  the 
form  of  pit  silos.  A  great  variety  of  material  has  been  used 
for  silage,  including  alfalfa,  cowpeas,  sorghum,  corn,  sweet 
potato  vines,  Para  grass,  various  other  grasses,  and  even 
prickly  pear.  On  the  Island  of  Lanai  some  success  has  been 


LEGUMES  AND  OTHER  FORAGE  PLANTS     321 

had  in  making  a  mixed  silage  composed  of  prickly  pear  and 
wild  grasses.  The  slabs  of  the  prickly  pear  furnished  moisture 
and  obviated  the  necessity  of  using  water  which  would  have 
been  required  if  wild  grasses  had  been  used  alone.  During 
the  process  of  fermentation  it  was  found  that  the  spines  on 
the  prickly  pear  softened  and  became  flexible  and  leathery. 


CHAPTER   XXI 
LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS  IN   THE  TROPICS 

THE  live-stock  industry  of  tropical  countries  differs  in  many 
respects  from  the  same  industry  In  cold  climates.  In  general, 
live  stock  is  of  less  commercial  importance  in  tropical  coun- 
tries as  compared  with  the  values  of  plant  products.  While 
nearly  all  tropical  countries  abound  in  animals  which  are  suit- 
able for  various  domestic  purposes,  there  has  never  been,  until 
recently,  any  great  organized  effort  to  develop  the  various 
phases  of  live  stock  along  commercial  lines.  Travelers  who 
are  familiar  with  the  various  improved  breeds  of  live  stock 
are  ordinarily  impressed  rather  unfavorably  with  the  appear- 
ance of  the  domestic  animals  which  they  find  in  the  Tropics. 
Many  newcomers  from  cold  climates  believe  that  a  great  re- 
form should  be  started  in  this  matter  and  that  this  reform 
should  at  once  involve  the  importation  of  superior  sires  of 
our  improved  breeds  of  stock  for  the  improvement  and  breed- 
ing up  of  tropical  live  stock.  Enthusiasm  of  this  form,  how- 
ever, should  not  be  allowed  to  carry  one  away  to  extreme 
measures,  for  the  reason  that  the  breeds  of  live  stock  now 
found  in  the  Tropics  have  come  about  as  a  natural  adjust- 
ment to  tropical  climates  and  are  likely  to  withstand  the  cli- 
mate and  give  a  better  account  of  themselves  than  would 
the  improved  breeds  imported  from  cold  climates.  Numer- 
ous blunders  have  been  made  in  the  attempt  at  the  wholesale 
and  sudden  reformation  of  the  live  stock  industry  of  the 
Tropics.  These  blunders  have  invariably  been  expensive  and 
discouraging.  The  common  breeds  of  live  stock  when  trans- 
ported to  tropical  climates  fall  a  prey  to  various  diseases  to 

322 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS      323 

which  they  are  highly  susceptible,  or  are  unable  to  thrive  and 
yield  a  profit  to  the  owners  under  the  conditions  of  feed  and 
pasturage  which  prevail  in  most  tropical  countries.  In  the 
improvement  of  animal  industry  in  the  Tropics,  therefore,  it 
is  perhaps  wise  to  proceed  very  slowly  and  to  admit  that 
perhaps  one  important  reason  for  the  existence  of  the  present 
tropical  breeds  of  cattle  is  their  superior  adaptability  to  the 
conditions  under  which  they  must  live. 


DAIRYING 

It  may  be  well  to  take  Hawaii  as  an  example  of  the  con- 
ditions which  must  be  met  in  carrying  on  the  dairy  industry 
in  tropical  climates.  There  are  certain  obvious  advantages 
in  such  climates  over  cold  climates.  Green  feed,  for  example, 
can  be  grown  the  year  round.  Alfalfa  will  mature  a  crop 
every  month,  and  in  unusually  favorable  years  13  crops  may 
be  grown  per  year.  This  furnishes,  of  course,  an  abundance 
of  excellent  green  material  for  milk  production.  Alfalfa  is 
by  no  means  the  only  crop  which  may  be  grown  for  green 
feeding  to  dairy  cows.  Sorghums,  Para  grass,  corn,  and  a 
great  variety  of  forage  grasses  may  be  grown  as  soiling  crops 
for  dairy  cows.  In  many  localities  it  appears  not  to  be  neces- 
sary to  produce  hay  in  order  to  get  fairly  satisfactory  results 
in  milk  yield. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  sugar  plantations,  endless  quanti- 
ties of  cane  tops  are  available  for  green  feed  at  the  cut- 
ting season.  At  higher  altitudes  some  of  the  smaller  va- 
rieties of  sugar  cane,  particularly  the  Japanese  cane,  may  be 
grown  specifically  as  a  cattle  feed.  Sugar  cane  may  be  read- 
ily used  as  a  silage  crop  and  makes  an  excellent  and  palatable 
silage. 

In  the  matter,  therefore,  of  green  fodder  the  advantage  lies 
all  with  the  Tropics  as  compared  with  cold  climates.  In  al- 
most every  other  respect,  however,  the  Tropics  are  at  a  dis- 


324  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

advantage  in  the  matter  of  milk  production.  Cows  give  less 
milk  in  tropical  climates.  It  is  rare  that  cows  of  the  best 
breeding  give  more  than  5,000  pounds  of  milk  per  year  in  a 
tropical  climate.  The  yield  is  more  likely  to  be  from  4  to 
7  quarts  per  day.  Moreover,  all  grains  are  higher  in  price 
than  in  cold  climates  and  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  the  pro- 
duction of  green  crops  are  more  expensive  than  is  the  case 
in  any  of  the  well  known  dairy  districts  of  the  United  States. 
The  prevalence  of  insect  pests,  particularly  the  horn  fly,  is 
another  large  disadvantage  of  the  Tropics.  The  horn  fly  pre- 
vails in  many  tropical  countries  in  numbers  unheard  of  in 
the  dairy  sections  of  the  mainland,  and  the  constant  annoy- 
ance of  these  pests  helps  to  reduce  the  condition  and  the  milk 
yields  of  dairy  cows.  In  consequence  of  these  various  disad- 
vantages, the  cost  of  producing  milk  in  the  Tropics  is  con- 
siderably higher  than  in  cold  climates.  The  same  tendency 
may  be  observed  on  the  mainland  of  the  United  States,  milk 
costing  more  and  more  as  one  proceeds  from  the  North  to 
the  South.  In  Honolulu,  for  example,  it  is  questionable 
whether  the  dairyman  can  make  a  reasonable  profit  on  sani- 
tary milk  delivered  to  the  consumer  at  a  lower  price  than  15 
cents  per  quart. 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  tropical  countries 
do  not  depend  for  their  milk  upon  the  dairy  breeds  of  cattle 
with  which  we  are  familiar.  In  fact,  most  of  the  milk  used 
by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Tropics  does  not  come  from  the 
ordinary  humpless,  taurine  cattle  with  which  we  are  familiar. 
In  India,  Asia  Minor,  and  Africa,  milk  is  obtained  from  the 
zebu,  the  water  buffalo,  sheep,  goat,  and  mare.  The  water 
buffalo,  or  carabao,  as  it  is  known  in  the  Philippines,  gives 
a  large  yield  of  milk  of  a  fairly  high  fat  content.  In  a  num- 
ber of  localities,  some  effort  has  been  made  to  improve  the 
milking  qualities  of  the  buffalo  by  the  ordinary  methods  of 
selective  breeding.  Considerable  success  has  been  achieved 
in  this  work.  In  Poona,  India,  for  example,  a  strain  of  buffalo 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS      325 

was  obtained  which  yielded  40  quarts  of  milk  per  day  of  high 
fat  content.  Even  with  this  enormous  milk  yield,  however, 
the  animals  were  not  considered  economic  for  commercial 
dairy  purposes.  Their  feeding  capacity  was  found  to  be  far 
greater  than  their  milk-yielding  capacity  and  the  cost  of 
maintaining  the  animals  on  rations  which  would  allow  the 
continued  production  of  high  milk  yield  proved  to  be  pro- 
hibitive. 

The  zebu  yield,  for  the  most  part,  2,  to  10  quarts  of  milk 
daily  with  a  fat  content  of  about  4.5  per  cent.  Hybrids  be- 
tween the  zebu  and  taurine  cattle  sometimes  give  even  less 
milk.  In  Egypt  and  quite  generally  in  tropical  Africa,  the 
zebu  is  used  as  a  work  and  draft  animal  and  the  milk  which 
may  be  obtained  is  only  a  secondary  consideration.  Under 
such  conditions,,  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  any  high 
milk  yield.  Little  or  no  effort  has  ever  been  made  to  improve 
the  milk-yielding  capacity  of  the  zebu  for  the  reason,  as  just 
indicated,  that  this  animal  is  everywhere  considered  of  prime 
importance  as  a  work  animal.  Throughout  Egypt  and  tropical 
Africa  also,  goats'  milk  is  widely  used.  Under  tropical  con- 
ditions, the  milch  goat  yields  from  3  to  5  quarts  of  milk  per 
day.  Goat  milk  is  also  extensively  used  in  Cuba,  Porto  Rico, 
Central  America,  South  America,  Malta,  Cyprus,  southern 
Europe,  Asia  Minor,  and  quite  generally  throughout  the  Trop- 
ics. As  is  well  known  also,  these  animals  are  driven  along 
the  streets  of  the  towns  and  milked  before  the  door  of  the 
customer.  The  customer  is  thus  assured  of  a  perfectly  fresh 
milk  supply,  but  this  method  of  delivering  milk  does  not  lend 
itself  to  the  development  of  any  large  commercial  dairy  in- 
dustry. In  fact,  there  seems  to  be  no  such  insistent  demand 
for  commercial  dairying  in  the  Tropics  as  in  the  colder  cli- 
mates ;  the  per  capita  consumption  of  milk  is  less,  and  the  mod- 
ern extensive  development  of  the  condensed  milk  industry 
offers  a  fairly  satisfactory  milk  supply  at  prices  with  which 
the  dairymen  in  the  Tropics  could  not  compete. 


326  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

BEEF  CATTLE 

The  term  cattle  has  been  rather  widely  and  loosely  used 
by  various  writers  in  referring  to  the  development  of  animal 
industry  in  the  Tropics.  The  term  is  here  used  to  mean  the 
collective  group  of  familiar  breeds  of  beef  cattle  which  form 
the  basis  of  the  commercial  beef  industry  in  the  great  beef- 
producing  countries  of  America  and  Europe.  The  term  cattle, 
as  used  in  India,  refers,  of  course,  to  the  zebu  or  Brahmin 
cattle. 

The  almost  universal  presence  of  the  zebu  and  buffalo  in 
the  Tropics  and  their  great  resistance  to  tropical  diseases  has 
made  it  seem  unnecessary  in  many  of  the  tropical  countries  to 
experiment  with  the  breeds  of  humpless  cattle  with  which  we 
are  familiar.  Nevertheless,  certain  tropical  countries  have 
offered  unusually  favorable  conditions  for  the  commercial  de- 
velopment of  a  beef  cattle  industry  based  upon  the  common 
beef  breeds,  such  as  Hereford,  Shorthorn,  Angus,  Devon,  etc. 
The  cattle  industry  of  Hawaii,  for  example,  is  fairly  well  de- 
veloped. The  largest  ranch  in  the  Territory  is  devoted  chiefly 
to  the  production  of  Herefords,  the  manager  of  which  has  be- 
come a  rather  noted  breeder.  Another  ranch  has  found  great- 
est profit  in  raising  Devons  and  has  gradually  built  up  a  herd 
of  pure-bred  Devons  of  somewhat  unusual  merit.  One  or 
two  other  ranches  have  preferred  to  devote  their  energies  to 
Shorthorns  and  have  succeeded  excellently  well  with  this 
breed.  According  to  the  most  recent  statistics,  the  number  of 
cattle  in  Brazil  is  about  9,000,000;  in  Mexico,  5,000,000;  and 
in  Uruguay,  8,000,000.  Neither  the  zebu  nor  hybrid  zebus 
have  ever  acquired  any  great  importance  in  the  cattle  industry 
of  South  America.  Fairly  good  representatives  of  the  ordi- 
nary beef  breeds  of  cattle  are  to  be  found  throughout  Cen- 
tral America,  South  America,  and  the  West  Indies.  In  the 
West  Indies,  however,  most  cattle  contain  some  trace  of  zebu 
blood.  From  India,  the  zebu  spread  eastward  through  Siam 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS     327 

and  Cochin  China  to  southern  China  and  the  Malay  States 
and  neighboring  islands.  It  was  also  carried  westward 
through  Persia,  Arabia,  and  all  of  tropical  Africa.  There 
are,  therefore,  very  few  taurine  or  humpless  cattle  in  any  of 
these  countries.  Apparent  mixtures  of  the  zebu  and  taurine 
cattle  are  found  throughout  tropical  countries  and  these  hy- 
brid strains  are  probably  of  great  antiquity.  There  have  been 
frequent  importations  of  taurine  cattle  also,  particularly  in  re- 
cent years,  into  all  parts  of  the  Tropics  and  these  animals 
have  been  used  to  some  extent  in  crossing  with  the  native  races 
of  zebus  or  hybrid  zebus. 

In  the  Belgian  Congo,  satisfactory  results  have  recently 
been  obtained  from  the  introduction  of  Belgian  and  Brittany 
cattle.  These  animals  were  used  for  crossing  on  the  native 
cattle  and  the  hybrids  show  not  only  a  remarkable  degree  of 
resistance  to  tropical  diseases  but  a  rather  better  form  and 
milk-yielding  capacity  than  those  of  the  native  cattle.  Simi- 
lar importations  are  being  made  into  nearly  all  tropical  coun- 
tries in  the  attempt  to  improve  the  native  strains  of  cattle.  It 
should  be  remembered  in  connection  with  any  discussion  of 
the  cattle  industry  of  the  Tropics  that  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Tropics  look  upon  cattle  as  work  animals  more  than  as 
a  source  of  meat  or  milk.  For  this  reason  the  demand  for 
beef  and  milk  in  the  tropical  countries  is  immeasurably  lower 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  inhabitants  than  in  cold  cli- 
mates. The  Buddhist  and  Brahmin  population  are  almost 
strictly  vegetarian  and  consider  their  cattle  as  sacred.  In  In- 
dia, therefore,  aside  from  the  British  or  other  temporary  resi- 
dents, the  Mohammedans  are  the  chief  meat  eaters  and  they 
eat  zebu,  buffalo,  camel,  and  other  food  animals. 

ZEBU  (Bos  Indicus) 

The  zebu  is  readily  distinguished  from  taurine  cattle  by 
the  possession  of  a  hump  on  the  withers,  usually  drooping 


328  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

ears,  and  commonly  a  white  ring  around  the  fetlock.  The 
zebu  is  also  called  Indian  cattle,  Indian  ox,  Brahmin  cattle, 
sacred  cattle  of  India,  and  by  other  names.  The  color  of 
the  zebu  may  be  white,  brindle,  tawny,  spotted  with  brown  or 
black,  dark  with  a  bluish  tinge,  and  of  numerous  other  shades. 
There  are  all  possible  horn  variations,  even  the  condition  of 
hornlessness.  The  zebu  weighs  up  to  1,500  pounds.  The  milk 
yield  in  all  cases  is  low.  The  zebu  is  readily  crossed  with 
taurine  cattle  and  the  hybrids  are  fertile. 

The  zebu  and  even  hybrids,  with  no  more  than  an  eighth  of 
zebu  blood,  have  commonly  been  found  to  be  immune  to  Texas 
fever.  The  hide  is  thick,  the  hair  rather  sparse,  and  cattle 
ticks  do  not  readily  attach  themselves.  For  this  reason  im- 
portations of  Brahmin  cattle  have  been  made  in  Texas,  Flor- 
ida, and  elsewhere  in  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of 
developing  a  strain  of  cattle  immune  to  Texas  fever.  The  zebu 
probably  does  not  occur  anywhere  as  a  wild  species.  It  has 
spread,  however,  throughout  the  Tropics  in  a  bewildering 
variety  of  races — small,  large,  with  large  hump,  almost  with- 
out hump,  and  in  almost  endless  color  patterns.  Many  of 
these  forms,  as  already  indicated,  are  probably  hybrids  be- 
tween the  zebu  and  taurine  cattle.  The  immense  importance 
of  the  zebu  in  British  India  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact 
that  according  to  admittedly  imperfect  census  returns  there 
are  at  least  95,000,000  of  these  cattle  in  that  country. 

A  pure  strain  of  zebu  was  recently  introduced  into  the  Bel- 
gian Congo,  where  it  was  acclimatized  without  difficulty.  In 
Persia,  most  "cattle"  are  zebus,  although  there  are  a  few 
European  cattle  and  hybrids  to  be  seen  occasionally.  Arabian 
cattle  are  all  zebus.  In  a  strain  of  zebu  near  Aden,  an  un- 
usually high  milk  yield  has  been  developed.  In  India,  there 
are  very  few  cattle  without  humps.  The  zebus  or  Brahmin 
cattle  are  used  for  oxen  in  teams,  as  pack  and  riding  animals, 
and  for  milk.  In  Ceylon,  the  zebu  is  used  on  freight  wagons 
and  farm  implements.  The  zebu  is  also  commonly  used  for 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS      329 

the  same  purpose  in  Burma,  Sumatra,  and  Java.  In  Porto 
Rico,  nearly  all  cattle  have  some  zebu  blood  and  the  same 
should  be  said  for  Central  America  and  West  Indies,  including 
Cuba. 

Throughout  tropical  Africa,  from  the  Cape  to  Cairo,  the 
zebu  prevails  in  a  great  variety  of  forms  but  is  largely  re- 
placed by  European  cattle  in  Cape  Colony.  Some  of  these 
forms  are  practically  without  hump,  particularly  the  Egyp- 
tian cattle.  In  Madagascar,  there  are  at  least  two  well  recog- 
nized races  of  zebu.  In  the  French  colonies  of  West  Africa, 
there  are  about  1,500,000  zebus  and  this  animal  is  considered 
of  fundamental  importance  as  a  source  of  power  for  agricul- 
tural development.  As  a  work  animal  the  zebu  has  every- 
where shown  his  superiority  over  taurine  cattle,  at  least  in 
tropical  countries.  This  is  due  not  only  to  his  greater  resist- 
ance to  tropical  diseases  but  to  a  generally  more  perfect  adap- 
tation to  tropical  conditions.  The  zebu  ox  will  keep  in  good 
condition  where  the  taurine  ox  will  be  miserably  poor.  The 
zebu  appears  to  be  less  nervous  and  stronger  and  more  endur- 
ing, at  least  under  tropical  conditions.  In  Cuba,  for  example, 
a  special  effort  is  being  made  at  present  to  improve  the  size 
and  excellence  of  the  work  oxen  of  the  country.  Practi- 
cally all  heavy  hauling,  plowing,  and  other  farm  operations  are 
done  by  oxen.  These  oxen  are  crosses  between  the  zebu  and 
Jerseys  or  other  breeds  of  cattle.  Their  ability  to  do  hard 
work  under  varying  tropical  conditions  is  sufficiently  attested 
by  the  fact  that  practically  every  ox  team  in  Cuba  is  in  ex- 
cellent physical  condition. 

Likewise  in  Porto  Rico  a  determined  effort  has  been  made 
to  improve  the  native  cattle  by  crossing  with  zebu  blood.  The 
purpose  of  this  work,  as  with  similar  work  in  Cuba,  is  to  in- 
crease the  working  efficiency  of  the  draft  ox.  Pure-bred 
zebu  sires  were  crossed  upon  Shorthorn,  Hereford,  and 
Brahmin  cows.  The  Shorthorn  and  Hereford  blood  appears 
to  broaden  the  frame  of  the  hybrid  somewhat  and  give  more 


330  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

depth  of  body.  The  Porto  Rico  Experiment  Station  has  already 
obtained  300  head  of  progeny  in  these  crossing  experiments 
and  has  had  opportunity  to  observe  the  habits  and  char- 
acters of  the  hybrid  animals.  In  all  cases  the  zebu  appears  to 
add  constitutional  vigor,  active  movement,  strong  bone,  straight 
legs,  and  hard  hoofs.  The  hybrids  have  been  found  to  be 
almost  completely  immune  to  tick  infestation  and  show  a 
remarkable  natural  adaptation  to  tropical  heat  and  short 
pasturage. 

BUFFALO    (Bos  Bubalus) 

The  buffalo  of  India  and  the  Oriental  Tropics  is  now  an 
important  domesticated  animal  in  Spain,  Italy,  southeastern 
Europe,  Africa,  India,  Burma,  the  Philippine  Islands,  China, 
Formosa,  Hawaii,  and  various  Pacific  Islands.  The  buffalo 
is  a  large  powerful  animal,  weighing  up  to  2,000  pounds  or 
more  and  standing  about  six  feet  high  at  the  withers.  The 
spread  of  the  horns  is  often  as  much  as  six  feet.  The  horns 
are  flattened  and  curve  upward  and  backward.  The  body  is 
nearly  hairless  and  of  a  bluish-black  color.  The  buffalo,  or 
carabao  as  they  are  called  in  the  Philippines,  are  strong,  slow, 
lazy,  and  willful.  They  do  not  endure  cold  weather  or  dry 
climate  and  must  be  maintained  in  the  neighborhood  of  streams 
or  standing  water  in  which  they  may  wallow.  The  buffalo  is 
intimately  associated  with  the  rice  industry.  Horses  and 
mules  do  not  endure  working  in  the  mud  as  well  as  do  the 
buffalo.  In  fact,  the  buffalo  not  only  endures  this  sort  of 
work,  but  appears  to  prefer  working  in  the  water  and  mud 
rather  than  on  dry  land.  The  buffalo  serves  as  a  powerful 
work  animal  up  to  the  age  of  20  to  30  years. 

Outside  of  the  Buddhist  and  Brahmin  communities,  the  buf- 
falo meat  is  eaten,  and  while  the  meat  of  all  buffalo  oxen  is 
reasonably  tough,  the  flavor  is  not  particularly  unpleasant. 
The  milk  yield  of  the  buffalo  is  larger  than  that  of  the  zebu 
or  other  cattle  under  tropical  conditions.  The  fat  content 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS      331 

of  the  milk  is  about  7^2  per  cent,  and  the  casein  nearly  6  per 
cent. 

According  to  the  most  recent  available  statistics  there  are 
about  17,000,000  domesticated  buffalo  in  British  India.  Many 
breeds  have  been  developed  in  various  localities,  but  none  of 
these  breeds  varies  in  any  pronounced  manner  from  the  wild 
form  of  the  buffalo  or  from  the  general  run  of  the  domesti- 
cated forms.  The  buffalo  was  introduced  from  Italy  into  the 
Belgian  Congo  in  1911,  but  this  importation  was  unfortunate 
on  account  of  the  prevalence  of  barbone,  which  disease  car- 
ried off  nearly  all  of  the  buffalo.  In  the  Philippines  and  else- 
where, tremendous  losses  have  been  suffered  from  time  to 
time  from  rinderpest.  In  1902,  for  example,  about  492,000 
carabao  died  of  rinderpest  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  When 
it  is  remembered  that  this  animal  serves  in  the  Philippines  as 
the  main  source  of  power,  meat,  and  milk,  it  may  readily  be 
understood  that  this  outbreak  of  rinderpest  was  little  less 
than  a  calamity. 

The  African  buffalo  (Bos  caffer)  has  never  been  domesti- 
cated. The  Indian  buffalo,  however,  has  been  widely  imported 
into  Africa  and  has  become  a  familiar  work  animal  in  that 
country.  The  gayal  (B'os  frontalis),  a  native  of  upland  India 
and  Indo-China,  has  been  domesticated  in  the  northeastern 
portions  of  India,  Assam,  and  China.  This  animal  is  char- 
acterized by  its  short  limbs,  short  horns,  which  stand  almost 
straight  out  laterally,  and  extremely  wide  forehead  between 
the  horns.  The  milk  yield  is  low  but  rich  in  fat.  The  milk 
has  never  been  used  very  extensively  but  the  meat  is  eaten,  es- 
pecially in  Indo-China.  The  gayal  is  readily  domesticated  and 
makes  a  powerful  ox  but  has  not  been  widely  used  for  work 
purposes.  The  color  is  usually  brown  but  occasionally  white. 
Crosses  between  the  gayal  and  ordinary  cattle  are  fertile.  The 
gaur  (Bos  gaurus),  a  native  of  India,  is  perhaps  the  largest 
of  all  wild  cattle.  It  is  closely  related  to  the  gayal,  which  it 
somewhat  resembles  in  appearance,  but  has  never  been  domes- 


3S2  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

ticated.  The  banteng  (Bos  sondaicus)  is  a  common  work 
animal  of  Burma,  Malaya,  Borneo,  Java,  Sunda  Islands,  and 
neighboring  countries.  This  ox  is  much  like  the  gayal,  but 
its  horns  are  slenderer  and  rounder  and  are  curved  upward 
and  back.  The  banteng  is  domesticated  in  largest  numbers  in 
Java,  where  it  is  extensively  crossed  with  the  zebu  and  other 
cattle.  The  banteng  is  an  inferior  draft  animal  but  the  meat 
is  considered  to  be  good. 


HORSES  AND  MULES 

The  horse  and  mule  industry  has  never  in  any  tropical  coun- 
try attained  the  importance  which  it  holds  in  temperate  cli- 
mates. This  is  due  partly  to  the  fact  that  horses  and  mules 
have  been  unable  to  resist  some  of  the  tropical  diseases  or 
the  peculiar  conditions  of  the  tropical  climate.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  many  parts  of  the  Tropics,  horses  and  mules  are 
practically  replaced  for  certain  purposes  by  buffalo,  zebu, 
camel,  elephant,  and  more  recently  by  the  wide  use  of  power 
machinery.  In  those  parts  of  the  Tropics,  like  Hawaii,  where 
tropical  animal  diseases  do  not  prevail,  horses  and  mules  may 
be  reared  and  used  under  conditions  practically  identical  with 
those  which  prevail  on  the  mainland  of  the  United  States. 
On  many  of  the  sugar  plantations,  horse  and  mule  power  is 
extensively  used  where  steam  and  gasoline  power  are  not 
economically  applied.  The  importance  of  the  horse  in  the 
Tropics  everywhere  increases  with  the  increasing  control  of 
the  Tropics  by  the  white  man. 

In  the  Belgian  Congo,  experiments  with  Senegal  ponies 
indicate  that  this  breed  is  well  adapted  for  use  in  the  Congo. 
The  so-called  Sandalwood  pony  of  Java  has  also  given  a  good 
account  of  itself  in  the  Congo.  Belgian  horses  have  been  used 
in  the  Belgian  Congo  for  the  production  .of  mules  but  are 
considered  too  heavy  for  draft  purposes.  Russian  horses,  in- 
troduced into  the  Congo,  have  proved  of  great  superiority  for 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS     333 

saddle  purposes.  In  mule-breeding  experiments  in  the  Bel- 
gian Congo,  it  has  been  found  that  the  Senegal  jack  is  readily 
acclimatized,  while  with  the  Poitou  and  Italian  jack,  trouble 
was  frequently  experienced. 

In  the  French  colonies  of  western  Africa,  the  horse  is  the 
most  important  animal  for  riding  and  driving.  Arabian  and 
Barb  breeds  are  preferred.  Horses  are  extensively  bred 
throughout  these  French  colonies,  and  a  large  percentage  even 
of  the  natives  in  Senegal,  Sudan,  and  Guinea  are  the  proud 
owners  of  saddle  horses.  In  Dahomey,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  horse  is  not  a  common  driving  or  riding  animal.  In  the 
French  West  Africa  colonies,  the  government  has  established 
studs  and  breeding  stations  at  a  number  of  convenient  loca- 
tions for  the  purpose  of  giving  help  and  encouragement  in 
the  improvement  of  horses  throughout  the  territory.  Among 
the  Sudanese,  the  ass  is  a  symbol  of  captivity.  The  chiefs  of 
these  natives,  therefore,  never  own  jacks  but  many  breeds 
of  jacks  are  used  by  the  common  natives.  Mules  are  generally 
popular  and  widely  employed  for  work  purposes  throughout 
French  Africa. 

The  thoroughbred  horse  originally  came  from  the  Ara- 
bian or  Libyan  native  horse  of  northern  Africa,  and  a  similar 
type  of  horse  prevails  throughout  Arabia,  Turkey,  Persia, 
and  neighboring  states.  Not  much  success  has  been  had  with 
horses  in  southern  India.  In  the  native  states  further  north, 
horses  are  a  common  sight,  but  are  mostly  of  pony  size  and 
with  Arabian  blood.  Ponies  are  extremely  numerous  in  Ben- 
gal, the  Federated  Malay  States,  and  Java.  In  Java,  the  favor- 
ite pony  is  the  so-called  Sandalwood  pony.  The  horses  of 
Borneo  and  the  Philippine  Islands  are  much  like  those  in  Java. 
In  Madagascar,  the  horse  apparently  does  not  thrive  well  and 
the  natives  use  oxen  for  the  most  part.  In  Mexico  and  Cen- 
tral America,  the  saddle  type  of  horse  is  the  one  in  greatest 
demand.  In  various  parts  of  tropical  South  America,  the 
horse  is  becoming  a  more  and  more  important  animal  for  work 


334  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

and  pleasure  uses,  and  in  Brazil  there  is  a  quite  unusual  inter- 
est in  horse  breeding. 

The  African  ass,  the  source  of  the  domestic  ass,  still  roams 
wild  in  various  parts  of  Africa  and  quite  generally  in  tropical 
countries  it  escapes  and  "goes  wild"  again.  Mules  are  gen- 
erally used  in  tropical  America  for  work  purposes  but  to  a 
less  extent  in  the  African  and  Oriental  Tropics.  In  the  ex- 
perience which  has  been  had  in  the  Tropics  with  mules,  no 
reason  has  been  developed  for  considering  the  mule  more  im- 
mune to  diseases  than  is  the  horse. 

Zebras  have  been  tamed  and  bred  in  captivity  and  main- 
tained as  work  animals  in  a  number  of  tropical  countries. 
Zebras  are  not  susceptible  to  tsetse-fly  disease  and  therefore 
give  some  promise  of  becoming  work  animals  where  the  horse 
and  mule  are  exterminated  by  tropical  diseases.  Zebroids,  or 
the  crosses  between  zebra  stallions  and  mares,  have  been  pro- 
duced in  a  number  of  localities  and  have  given  good  accounts 
of  themselves.  In  making  these  crosses  draft  breeds  of  mares 
are  used  to  produce  work  zebroids,  and  thoroughbred  mares 
in  the  production  of  driving  and  riding  zebroids.  Thus  far 
the  most  important  breeding  work  in  the  production  of  ze- 
broids has  been  done  by  Ewart  in  England  and  Baron  de 
Parana  in  Brazil.  The  consensus  of  opinion  of  those  who 
have  had  practical  experience  with  zebroids  is  that  these  ani- 
mals are  very  tractable,  graceful,  and  of  great  endurance. 


SWINE 

Like  the  other  familiar  domestic  animals  of  Europe  and 
northern  America,  the  hog  in  the  Tropics  shows  an  extremely 
irregular  distribution,  due  to  local  conditions  and  customs. 
Throughout  the  Pacific  and  South  Sea  Islands,  including  Ha- 
waii, and  particularly  in  southern  China  and  Brazil,  the  hog 
industry  is  an  important  one  and  pork  constitutes  a  large 
feature  of  the  diet.  Elsewhere  in  the  Tropics,  the  pig  is  a  less 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS     335 

familiar  and  less  important  animal.  In  Hawaii,  the  hog  in- 
dustry has  been  fairly  well  developed,  particularly  in  the  hands 
of  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  who  are  extremely  fond  of  pork. 
The  breeds  in  most  common  use  there  are  Berkshire,  Duroc- 
Jersey,  and  Hampshire.  Wild  hogs  are  found  in  the  islands 
and  bring  approximately  as  high  a  price  as  improved  breeds. 
These  wild  hogs  are,  of  course,  merely  the  descendants  of  do- 
mesticated hogs  which  escaped  and  are  taking  care  of  them- 
selves in  the  mountains.  Pigs  of  Spanish  breeds  are  found 
throughout  French  West  Africa,  but  all  hogs  are,  of  course, 
taboo  to  all  Semitic  and  Islamitic  races  in  Africa  or  wherever 
they  may  occur. 

The  Chinese  are  constant  pork  eaters  and  the  swine  indus- 
try in  China  has  been  widely  developed  for  ages.  Certain 
breeds  peculiar  to  China  have  been  developed  there,  particu- 
larly in  southern  China,  where  a  breed  of  white  color  is  pre- 
ferred. The  hog  industry  has  been  extensively  developed  in 
the  Island  of  Hainan,  and  Chinese  pigs  are  also  raised  on  a 
large  scale  in  Sumatra,  Java,  and  the  Philippines.  In  Egypt, 
Tunis,  and  Algeria  pigs  are  raised  only  by  Europeans.  In 
eastern  Africa  there  is  little  development  of  the  pig  industry, 
except  in  Mozambique. 

SHEEP 

The  sheep  industry  is  far  more  important  in  some  of  the 
strictly  tropical  countries  than  is  perhaps  commonly  supposed. 
In  Hawaii,  there  are  a  number  of  ranches  devoted  chiefly 
to  sheep,  the  most  important  breeds  being  Shropshire,  Merino, 
and  Tunis.  On  the  Island  of  Molokaf,  considerable  attention 
has  been  given  to  Tunis  sheep  on  account  of  their  adaptability 
to  the  local  conditions  and  their  somewhat  unusual  merit  as 
mutton  producers.  On  the  Island  of  Lanai  one  or  two  types 
of  Australian  Merino  have  been  tried  with  satisfactory  results. 
The  most  serious  disease  from  which  sheep  suffer  in  Ha- 
waii is  scab,  and  this  is,  of  course,  readily  controlled  by  dip- 


336  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

ping.    Horn  flies  and  flesh  flies  give  considerable  trouble  from 
their  attacks  upon  wounds  which  sheep  may  receive. 

The  sheep  industry  of  Brazil  is  an  important  part  of  the 
animal  husbandry  of  that  great  country.  There  are  now 
nearly  2,000,000  sheep  in  Brazil.  The  fat-rumped  sheep  are 
widely  raised  in  the  warmer  parts  of  Asia  Minor.  In  Tur- 
kestan and  neighboring  countries  the  broad-tailed  sheep  is  a 
favorite  breed.  The  caracul  sheep  is  a  race  of  broad-tailed 
sheep  which  is  recently  becoming  popular  in  the  United  States 
for  its  mutton  and  for  its  fleece  which  resembles  Persian 
lamb  or  Astrakhan  wool.  Mutton  is  the  favorite  meat  of  the 
Hindus  and  throughout  India  sheep  are  extensively  raised. 
Most  of  them  are  small  and  resemble  goats  in  appearance. 
Sheep  are  not  important  domestic  animals  in  Indo-China,  Ma- 
laya, Formosa,  or  the  Philippines.  In  Egypt,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  sheep  industry  is  well  developed.  It  has  been  found 
in  Egypt  that  sheep  furnish  much  help  in  keeping  down  weeds 
and  grass  along  irrigation  ditches,  and  in  many  localities  they 
are  raised  primarily  for  this  purpose  and  secondarily  for  their 
meat.  Maned  and  broad-tailed  sheep  are  quite  commonly 
raised  in  Abyssinia  and  East  Africa,  while  the  Mauritanian 
and  'Macina  breeds  are  found  in  considerable  abundance  in 
the  French  African  colonies.  In  Central  America  and  the 
West  Indies,  sheep  are  yielding  their  position  to  cattle  and 
the  sheep  industry  is  therefore  on  the  wane. 


GOATS 

Man  has  made  use  of  goats  since  the  dawn  of  history.  They 
have  constituted  an  important  source  of  meat,  milk,  and  hair 
for  the  production  of  certain  fabrics  in  both  tropical  and  sub- 
tropical countries.  Hawaiian  experiments  with  goats  have 
been  unfortunate.  On  account  of  their  eminent  ability  to  care 
for  themselves  in  tropical  countries  they  have  escaped  from 
domestication  and  run  wild  on  most  of  the  islands  of  the 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS     337 

Hawaiian  group.  On  some  of  these  islands,  particularly  La- 
nai  and  Kahoolawe,  they  have  increased  to  such  numbers  as 
to  become  a  veritable  pest,  destroying  grass  and  brush,  and 
greatly  interfering  with  the  growth  of  forests  at  higher  alti- 
tudes. The  destruction  of  vegetation  by  goats  on  these  islands 
has  led  to  the  development  of  semi-desert  conditions  under 
which  wind  erosion  takes  place  to  an  enormous  extent.  At 
frequent  intervals  goat  drives  are  organized  by  hunters  for 
the  purpose  of  exterminating  these  wild  goats.  Some  of  the 
drives  have  resulted  in  the  capture  and  destruction  of  thou- 
sands of  goats. 

In  the  Philippines,  there  are  but  few  goats  and  these  are 
raised  for  their  milk.  The  goat  is  an  important  domestic 
animal  in  almost  all  parts  of  Africa.  Throughout  Egypt  the 
goat  is  raised  for  both  milk  and  fleece.  The  Angora  goat 
thrives  excellently  well  in  Algeria.  The  dwarf  goat  occurs  in 
the  Sudan,  and  throughout  Guinea,  the  Congo,  Angola,  and 
East  Africa  the  goat  is  a  familiar  domestic  animal.  The 
goat  is  also  an  important  animal  in  certain  parts  of  Mexico 
where  it  is  raised  both  for  milk  and  for  fleece.  In  tropical 
South  America,  the  goat  is  of  minor  importance,  except  in 
Brazil.  Experiments  with  milch  goats  in  the  Belgian  Congo 
have  thus  far  been  rather  unsatisfactory.  They  do  not  appear 
to  become  acclimatized  readily  or  to  endure  the  heat  of  that 
country. 

CAMEL 

The  dromedary,  one-humped,  or  Arabian  camel  is  referred 
by  zoologists  to  Camelus  dromedarius  and  the  Bactrian  or 
two-humped  camel  to  C.  bactrianus.  The  two  forms,  how- 
ever, have  repeatedly  crossed  and  some  authorities  consider 
them  races  of  a  single  species.  The  camel  will  readily  find 
a  living  on  brush,  leaves,  spiny  salt  bushes,  and  other  coarse 
plants  of  little  use  to  other  domestic  animals.  The  camel  does 
not  well  endure  a  humid  atmosphere  but  will  endure  excel- 


338  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

lently  well  both  extreme  heat  and  the  cold  nights  of  the  des- 
ert. As  is  well  known,  camels  are  chiefly  used  for  riding  and 
packing,  the  two-humped  camel  being  used  mostly  for  pack- 
ing. A  good  riding  camel  will  make  a  speed  of  five  or  six 
miles  an  hour  with  a  reasonable  rest  at  mid-day  and  will  travel 
16  out  of  the  24  hours,  thus  making  80  miles  a  day.  In 
Egypt,  it  is  customary  to  begin  working  the  camel  at  the  age 
of  three  years.  He  reaches  full  strength,  however,  only  at 
six  years  when  he  may  have  attained  a  weight  of  900  to  1,400 
pounds.  A  mature  camel  will  carry  a  pack  of  200  to  400 
pounds  or  even  more. 

The  color  of  the  Egyptian  breeds  of  camel  is  brown,  black, 
black  and  brown,  or  white.  In  the  Cairo  abattoir,  camels  are 
slaughtered  in  large  numbers  for  human  food.  In  the  ex- 
perience of  this  abattoir,  it  has  been  found  that  the  dressed 
weight  of  camels  is  about  55  per  cent,  of  the  live  weight.  In 
Syria,  the  packload  of  camels  is  commonly  500  to  650  pounds. 
The  ability  of  camels  to  go  without  water  has  been  somewhat 
exaggerated.  It  has  been  found  best  to  water  them  once 
a  day  and  not  to  keep  them  continuously  at  hard  work  in 
hot  weather  for  more  than  48  hours  at  a  stretch.  In 
Arabia,  camels  are  said  to  travel  sometimes  for  five  days  with- 
out water. 

The  Bactrian  camel  is  not  used  in  Arabia,  Syria,  Palestine, 
or  North  Africa.  In  these  countries,  the  dromedary  or  Ara- 
bian camel  is  the  only  breed  to  be  seen.  Statistics  regarding 
the  number  of  camels  used  for  economic  purposes  are  rather 
meager  and  incomplete.  There  are  said  to  be  about  2,000,000 
camels  in  Somaliland.  The  camel  is  used  extensively  as  a 
pack  animal  in  the  Island  of  Malta  and  in  West  Australia.  In 
British  India  there  are  about  450,000  camels  used  for  riding 
and  packing. 

An  experiment  was  begun  in  1856  in  the  use  of  camels  in 
Texas  and  elsewhere  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  United 
States.  The  results  were  in  every  respect  satisfactory  but 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS     339 

during  the  Civil  War  the  camels  were  neglected  and  the  ex- 
periment was  allowed  to  lapse. 


LLAMA  AND  ALPACA 

These  interesting  cameloid  ruminants  of  South  America  are 
commonly  supposed  to  be  domesticated  races  of  the  wild  gua- 
naco  and  vicuna.  The  alpaca  is  of  more  compact  build  and 
has  a  heavier  coat  of  hair.  The  alpaca  is  mostly  black  in  color, 
while  the  llama  is  commonly  white  with  brown  or  black  mark- 
ings. The  alpaca  is  considered  decidedly  of  the  more  value 
and  its  long,  fine,  silky  wool  of  metallic  luster  is  much  prized 
for  use  in  certain  fabrics.  In  1914,  the  United  States  imported 
about  1,000,000  pounds  of  alpaca  wool.  The  alpaca  extends 
from  the  Equator  to  Cape  Horn  and  the  total  production  of 
alpaca  hair  amounts  to  several  million  pounds  annually.  Thus 
far  all  attempts  to  acclimatize  the  alpaca  in  Europe  or  Australia 
have  failed.  This  animal  is  also  used  to  some  extent  for  meat. 

The  llama  is  the  only  native  work  animal  of  South  America. 
The  males  are  used  as  pack  animals  and  are  commonly  made 
to  carry  from  80  to  90  pounds  in  the  pack.  The  females  are 
shorn  for  their  wool  which  is  decidedly  inferior  to  that  of  the 
alpaca.  Like  the  latter  the  llama  is  also  used  as  a  food  animal. 

ELEPHANT 

Zoologists  distinguish  between  the  African  and  Asiatic  ele- 
phant. The  male  African  elephant  stands  about  10  feet  high 
at  the  withers  at  maturity  and  weighs  4  or  5  tons.  The  female 
is  smaller  than  in  the  Asiatic  species.  The  male  Asiatic  ele- 
phant is  about  8  or  9  feet  in  height  at  the  withers  and  weighs 
2  or  3  tons. 

The  elephant  becomes  fully  mature  at  about  25  years  of  age 
and  lives  to  be  125  to  150  years  old.  He  may  be  bred  in  cap- 
tivity without  great  difficulty  but  most  domesticated  elephants 


340  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

have  been  caught  young  and  tamed  and  trained.  They  have 
been  used  since  the  earliest  times  in  war,  in  state  processions, 
and  for  all  kinds  of  labor.  The  elephant  is  an  exceedingly 
clever  and  tractable  work  animal  and  his  great  strength  makes 
him  a  very  valuable  source  of  power  in  lumbering  and  heavy 
freight  operations. 

The  African  elephant  formerly  existed  in  immense  numbers 
but  is  now  much  reduced,  largely  for  the  reason  that  both 
males  and  females  possess  tusks  and  are  killed  for  their  ivory. 
In  the  Belgian  Congo  an  elephant  training  station  has  been 
established  at  Api.  The  African  elephant  appears  to  be  as 
easy  to  train  as  the  Asiatic  species.  In  domestication  the  Af- 
rican elephant  stands  about  7^2  feet  at  the  withers  at  the  age 
of  15  years.  No  trouble  has  been  experienced  in  the  Congo 
in  training  them  and  they  have  proved  eminently  satisfactory 
for  all  kinds  of  work.  In  the  Congo,  elephants  have  been 
extensively  used  for  carrying  bunches  of  fruit  of  the  oil  palm 
to  oil  mills  and  for  miscellaneous  work.  The  exportation  of 
ivory  from  the  Ivory  Coast,  Sudan,  Senegal,  Guinea,  and  else- 
where is  still  of  considerable  proportions.  Statistics  on  the 
number  of  elephants  used  for  economic  purposes  are  ex- 
tremely fragmentary,  but  in  Siam  there  are  reported  to  be 
more  than  3,000  elephants  in  domestication. 


POULTRY 

The  jungle  fowl,  the  wild  ancestor  of  our  chickens,  occurs 
abundantly  throughout  India,  Burma,  Malaya,  Indo-China, 
Java,  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  neighboring  tropical  coun- 
tries. Some  or  all  of  the  various  kinds  of  domestic  poultry  are 
raised  in  all  tropical  countries  and  most  of  the  different  kinds 
of  poultry  thrive  fairly  well  in  tropical  climates. 

In  Hawaii,  no  unusual  difficulties  have  been  met  with  in 
raising  chickens,  ducks,  geese,  turkeys,  guinea  fowls,  pea  fowls, 
and  pigeons.  All  of  these  kinds  of  poultry  may  and  do  escape 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS 

from  domestication  into  the  woods.  In  this  wild  condition, 
they  readily  maintain  themselves  in  considerable  numbers  and 
thus  furnish  sport  in  hunting.  Wild  turkeys,  wild  chickens, 
and  wild  pea  fowls  are  quite  commonly  met  with  at  the  higher 
elevations  on  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 

The  so-called  native  breeds  of  chickens  are  small  in  most 
tropical  countries,  weighing  up  to  about  three  pounds.  More- 
over, they  are  commonly  of  poor  flavor,  and  the  white  settlers 
have  everywhere  carried  with  them  into  the  Tropics  improved 
breeds  of  poultry  and  with  considerable  success.  All  domestic 
ducks  seem  to  have  descended  from  the  wild  Mallard  and 
musk  ducks  and  are  now  found  everywhere  in  the  Tropics. 
Domestic  geese  came  from  the  wild  graylag  goose  of  Europe 
and  the  Asiatic  goose,  and  descendants  of  these  two  types  are 
found  in  domestication  in  all  parts  of  the  Tropics.  Apparent 
hybrids  between  these  two  types  have  been  met  with  in  India 
and  Africa. 

The  guinea  fowl  is  a  native  of  Africa  and  readily  makes 
itself  at  home  in  any  part  of  the  Tropics.  The  pea  fowl  is  a 
native  of  Eastern  Asia,  particularly  India,  China,  and  the  ad- 
jacent islands.  It  readily  adapts  itself  to  tropical  conditions  in 
all  parts  of  the  world  and  occurs  in  both  a  wild  and  domestic 
form  in  nearly  all  tropical  countries.  The  turkey  is  a  native 
of  the  United  States,  Mexico,  and  Central  America,  but  has 
now  been  quite  generally  introduced  into  tropical  countries, 
where  it  thrives  excellently  well. 

OSTRICHES 

There  are  at  least  three  common  species  of  ostriches  in 
Africa,  one  characteristic  of  North  Africa,  a  second  of  South 
Africa,  and  a  third  of  Somaliland.  The  ostrich  reaches  a 
height  of  6  to  7^  feet.  In  the  wild  state  the  female  lays  about 
24  eggs.  The  ostrich  industry  is  now  carried  on  in  the  Trans- 
vaal, Cape  Colony,  Natal,  Southwest  Africa,  Algeria,  Tunis, 


TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

Egypt,  Sudan,  Madagascar,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  South 
America,  and  the  United  States. 

Commercial  ostrich  farming  began  in  Oudtshoorn,  South 
Africa,  in  1860.  From  this  date  on  the  industry  increased 
rather  rapidly,  and  at  present  Cape  Colony  has  over  1,000,000 
ostriches,  Australia,  2,000,  and  the  United  States  about  10,000 
ostriches.  The  industry  is  important  in  the  various  other 
countries  named  above,  but  statistics  on  their  numbers  are 
wanting  or  unreliable. 

South  Africa  in  1913  exported  1,023,000  pounds  of  ostrich 
feathers  at  a  value  of  $14,000,000.  In  England,  a  campaign 
was  started  against  ostrich  farming  on  the  ground  that  the 
plucking  of  the  feathers  was  an  act  of  cruelty.  Ultimately, 
an  antiplumage  bill  was  passed  in  1913  and  at  about  the 
same  time  ostrich  feathers  began  to  go  out  of  style  in  the 
United  States.  This  country  imported  $6,250,000  worth  of 
ostrich  feathers  in  1913,  while  the  importation  fell  to  the  value 
of  only  $3,900,000  in  1914. 

In  the  United  States  ostrich  eggs  are  hatched  almost  en- 
tirely by  artificial  incubation,  the  incubation  period  being  six 
weeks.  About  95  per  cent,  of  the  eggs  are  fertile.  In  South 
Africa,  the  eggs  are  hatched  chiefly  by  the  parent  birds,  but 
also  by  incubators.  The  domestic  habits  of  an  ostrich  family 
are  quite  interesting.  Sometimes  the  hen  ostrich  sits  on  the 
eggs  by  day  and  the  cock  by  night,  while  occasionally  the 
cock  does  nearly  all  of  the  incubating.  The  cock  ostrich  is 
extremely  pugnacious,  even  dangerously  so,  during  the  hatch- 
ing season. 

Ostriches  begin  breeding  at  the  age  of  three  or  four  years 
and  continue  to  the  age  of  20  years  or  more.  In  Oudtshoorn, 
the  common  practice  is  to  pull  the  first  feathers  at  the  age 
of  8  or  9  months.  Six  months  later  the  primary  feathers 
are  cut  off  and  two  months  later  the  quills  of  the  cut  feathers 
are  pulled,  thus  giving  three  plumages  in  about  6  months  and 
about  one  pound  of  feathers  per  bird. 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS     343 

Ostriches  live  to  an  age  of  50  to  60  years.  A  great  amount 
of  breeding  and  selection  work  has  been  done  with  ostriches, 
especially  in  Cape  Colony  where  fine  breeding  birds  have 
brought  as  high  as  $4,000  a  pair.  An  investigation  of  factors 
which  influence  quality  of  plumage  has  been  carried  on  for 
many  years  in  South  Africa  and  a  similar  study  is  now  under 
way  in  Arizona. 

Alfalfa  pasture  or  alfalfa  hay  has  everywhere  proved  to  be 
the  best  form  of  roughage  for  ostriches.  A  good  ostrich  ra- 
tion contains  about  three  pounds  of  alfalfa  hay  and  five  pounds 
of  corn  or  barley  per  day.  As  is  commonly  known  also,  os- 
triches will  eat  all  kinds  of  waste  material.  The  egg  yield  under 
domestication  varies  from  30  to  100  eggs  per  year  and  the  eggs 
weigh  from  2^2  to  4  pounds  apiece.  In  South  Africa,  caponiz- 
ing  of  ostriches  has  been  practiced  to  some  extent  with  the 
idea  that  capons  would  fight  less  and  would  thus  not  be  so 
likely  to  injure  their  feathers.  The  meat  of  ostrich  capons  is 
frequently  eaten  and  is  said  to  be  somewhat  of  a  delicacy. 
Incidentally  in  connection  with  the  study  of  domesticated 
ostriches,  some  of  them  have  been  trained  for  riding  or  driv- 
ing, hitched  to  a  sulky. 

The  South  American  ostrich,  also  called  nandu  or  rhea,  was 
at  one  time  killed  in  large  numbers  and  its  feathers  sent  to  the 
United  States.  Recently  a  beginning  has  been  made  in  do- 
mesticating this  bird  as  a  source  of  valuable  feathers.  Among 
the  other  tropical  birds  which  furnish  articles  of  commerce, 
mention  should  be  made  of  the  marabou  stork  and  the  aigret 
heron,  both  of  which  may  be  readily  domesticated  but  which 
for  the  most  part  have  been  hunted  in  the  wild  condition.  In 
parts  of  western  Africa,  the  aigret  heron  was  hunted  almost 
to  extermination,  while  no  effort  was  being  put  forth  to  raise 
them  in  domestication.  The  French  are  beginning  to  protect 
the  aigret  in  their  African  colonies  with  the  result  that  the 
numbers  of  these  birds  are  rapidly  increasing. 


344  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

SILK 

Among  the  useful  insects  which  occur  in  tropical  countries 
it  may  be  worth  while  briefly  to  consider  the  silkworm,  bees, 
the  lac  insect,  and  the  cochineal  insect.  According  to  Chinese 
records,  the  silk  industry  originated  in  China  about  2600  B.  C. 
From  China  it  passed  over  to  Korea,  Japan,  Constantinople 
(550  A.  D.),  and  then  throughout  the  countries  where  silk- 
worms are  now  raised.  Both  Chinese  and  Japanese  use  enor- 
mous quantities  of  silk  and  statistics  on  total  production  are 
not  very  reliable.  In  1908,  China  produced  29,000,000  pounds 
of  silk,  Japan  25,000,000,  India  10,000,000,  the  Levant,  5,- 
600,000,  and  Indo-China  2,400,000.  The  total  world  produc- 
tion for  that  year  was  about  77,000,000  pounds. 

The  total  exports  of  silk  from  the  producing  countries  is 
now  about  60,000,000  pounds,  of  which  Japan  exports  26,- 
000,000,  China  19,000,000,  Italy  7,800,000,  the  Levant  5,000,- 
ooo,  British  India  220,000  and  Indo-China,  33,000. 

The  United  States  imports  about  25,000,000  pounds  of  silk 
annually.  There  is  no  likelihood,  however,  of  the  establish- 
ment of  a  commercial  silk  industry  in  the  United  States  for 
the  reason  that  hand  labor  is  too  expensive.  The  immense 
amount  of  hand  work  in  silk  culture  makes  cheap  labor  a  neces- 
sity. Commercial  silk  production  must  therefore  apparently  be 
confined  to  regions  where  cheap  labor  is  available,  particularly 
China,  Japan,  Italy,  and  the  Levant. 

The  silk  moth  lays  300  to  700  eggs  and  the  life  cycle  occu- 
pies about  65  days  for  each  generation.  About  2,200  pounds 
of  mulberry  leaves  are  required  for  the  growth  of  the  worms 
which  hatch  from  one  ounce  of  eggs.  This  of  itself  indicates 
the  enormous  amount  of  hand  work  connected  with  the  in- 
dustry. Silk  cocoons  are  gathered  about  7  to  10  days  after 
the  beginning  of  the  spinning.  The  length  of  the  silk  thread 
in  a  cocoon  varies  from  900  to  1,600  yards  and  cocoons  com- 
monly weigh  at  the  rate  of  155  to  320  to  the  pound.  The 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS      345 

French,  Belgians  and  Italians  are  introducing  silk  culture  into 
their  tropical  colonies  in  a  serious  manner,  and  it  is  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  production  of  raw  silk  will  be  greatly  increased 
as  the  result  of  their  efforts. 


BEES 

The  Giant  East  Indian  bee  (Apis  dorsata)  occurs  generally 
on  the  continent  of  Asia  and  the  adjacent  tropical  islands,  in- 
cluding the  Philippines.  This  bee  builds  huge  combs  often 
four  feet  thick  and  six  feet  long  attached  to  ledges  of  rocks 
or  to  the  branches  of  trees.  Perhaps  the  smallest  species  of 
honey  bee  is  A.  florea,  a  native  of  the  East  Indies.  This  spe- 
cies builds  a  comb  only  three  or  four  inches  across.  The 
common  bee  of  southern  Asia  is  A.  indica.  It  is  kept  for 
commercial  purposes  in  crude  hives  in  various  parts  of  the 
East  Indies.  The  brood  comb  of  this  species  is  much  smaller 
than  is  that  of  our  familiar  honey  bee. 

•  The  common  honey  bee,  A.  mellifica,  including  the  common 
German,  Italian,  Cyprian,  Egyptian,  Carniolan,  Tunisian,  and 
other  breeds,  is  found  everywhere  in  the  Tropics  and  escapes 
by  swarming  to  form  nests  in  trees  in  other  locations.  The 
honey  produced  in  tropical  countries  is  largely  used  locally, 
while  the  wax  goes  into  the  world's  commerce.  Beeswax  is 
an  important  industry  in  many  parts  of  the  Tropics,  as  is  ap- 
parent from  the  fact  that  French  Guinea  and  Senegal  exports 
about  200,000  pounds  of  beeswax  annually.  The  United  States 
imports  about  1,503,000  pounds  of  beeswax  per  year. 

In  Hawaii,  a  considerable  development  of  the  bee  industry 
has  taken  place  in  recent  years.  The  most  important  honey 
plant  of  the  Territory  is  the  algaroba  which  furnishes  two 
crops  of  flowers  annually.  In  all  of  the  large  forests  of 
algaroba  apiaries  have  been  established  at  intervals  so  as  to 
utilize  the  flowers  most  effectively.  From  Hawaii  about  1,000 
tons  of  honey  are  exported  annually  and  also  an  excellent,  very 


346  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

light  colored  beeswax  in  constantly  increasing  amounts.  A 
similar  development  in  apiculture  has  taken  place  in  Porto 
Rico,  where  the  industry  began  in  1900  and  increased  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  exportation  of  beeswax  was  18,000  pounds 
in  1914,  while  honey  was  exported  to  the  value  of  $70,000. 


SHELLAC 

Shellac  is  a  resinous  secretion  of  scale  insects  (Tachardia 
lacca  and  related  species),  and  is  formed  as  a  continuous  in- 
crustation on  twigs  infested  with  these  insects.  The  material 
comes  into  commerce  under  a  number  of  trade  names.  The 
term  stick-lac  is  used  in  referring  to  the  incrusted  twigs  re- 
moved from  the  tree  without  disturbing  the  incrustation  of  lac. 
Seed-lac  is  the  term  used  for  the  granular  lac  scraped  off  from 
the  twigs,  while  the  term  shellac  is  reserved  for  the  pure  lac 
melted  and  poured  out  on  a  cool  surface  in  sheets. 

The  best  lac  is  obtained  from  lac  insects  when  living  on 
Schleichera  trijuga  or  on  Butea  frondosa.  The  latter  tree  is 
so  familiarly  known  in  this  connection  that  in  India  it  is  called 
the  lac  tree. 

The  demand  for  lac  is  rapidly  increasing.  India  produces 
about  15,000  tons  annually,  of  which  the  United  States  uses 
about  6,000  tons.  Shellac  is  used  for  a  multitude  of  pur- 
poses, including  electric  insulation,  gramophone  records,  seal- 
ing wax,  polish  for  wood  and  metal,  stiffening  for  hats,  litho- 
graphic ink,  in  connection  with  the  manufacture  of  painted 
pottery,  and  in  innumerable  other  ways,  especially  in  India. 
The  industry  is  still  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  natives  of 
India  and  rights  are  sold  to  collect  lac  in  government  forests. 
The  lac  trees  mentioned  above  are  not  the  only  ones  upon 
which  lac  insects  live.  There  is,  in  fact,  a  great  variety  of 
other  trees  upon  which  lac  insects  may  produce  a  good  quality 
of  lac.  The  Department  of  Agriculture  of  India  now  gives 
instruction  in  the  cultivation  of  lac,  including  the  planting  of 


LIVE  STOCK  AND  ANIMAL  PRODUCTS     347 

special  trees,  the  establishment  of  insect  colonies  on  them, 
methods  of  pruning  and  scraping  the  lac,  and  other  operations 
connected  with  the  industry.  At  present  there  is  a  tendency, 
therefore,  to  make  shellac  production  an  agricultural  industry 
rather  than  the  mere  haphazard  collection  of  a  wild  by-prod- 
uct. The  total  output  of  shellac  from  India  has  an  annual 
value  of  about  $3,500,000  and  a  small  shellac  industry  has  been 
established  in  Ceylon.  The  average  yield  is  about  four  to  six 
pounds  of  stick-lac  per  tree. 


COCHINEAL 

The  trade  term  cochineal  signifies  the  bodies  of  a  female 
scale  insect  known  as  Pseudococcus  cacti  which  feeds  on  cer- 
tain species  of  cactus.  These  insects  were  originally  culti- 
vated or  cared  for  by  the  Indians  of  Mexico  and  Central 
America  and  were  later  introduced  into  the  Canary  Islands, 
Algeria,  Java,  Australia,  and  elsewhere.  About  70,000  cochi- 
neal insects  are  required  to  make  a  pound  of  crude  cochineal 
which  yields  10  per  cent,  of  pure  dye.  A  few  years  ago  the 
annual  importation  of  cochineal  into  England  from  the  Canary 
Islands  amounted  to  260,000  pounds,  and  in  the  eighties  the 
United  States  imported  500,000  pounds  of  cochineal  annually. 
The  natural  cochineal  industry,  however,  like  that  of  madder 
and  indigo  has  been  practically  destroyed  by  the  cheap  aniline 
dyes  manufactured  in  Germany.  There  is  still  quite  an  in- 
dustry in  cochineal,  however,  in  Oaxaca,  Mexico,  among 
the  Indians  who  maintain  plantations  of  the  Nopal  cactus  for 
this  purpose.  These  Indians  carefully  preserve  colonies  of 
the  cochineal  insect  and  distribute  them  upon  the  cactus. 
In  Teneriffe  the  insects  are  cultivated  on  Opuntia  ficus- 
indica. 

In  harvesting  this  product  the  insects  are  scraped  off,  killed 
by  plunging  into  hot  water,  and  then  dried.  Cochineal  is  used 
not  only  as  a  pure  dye  but  in  the  preparation  of  extremely  valu- 


348  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

able  pigments  other  than  the  pure  cochineal.  For  example, 
cochineal  mixed  with  gelatinous  alumina  forms  the  pigment 
known  as  lake.  Carmine  is  a  brilliant  scarlet  pigment  precipi- 
tated from  cochineal  decoction  by  acids  or  animal  gelatin. 


APPENDIX 

BOOKS  AND  PERIODICALS  DEALING  WITH  TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURE 

THERE  is  a  large  mass  of  literature  dealing  with  the  general 
field  of  tropical  agriculture  or  with  special  phases  of  this  subject. 
It  is  perhaps  desirable  to  give  a  brief  list  containing  some  of  the 
more  important  of  these  books,  particularly  for  reference  purposes 
on  the  general  subjects,  or  on  particular  countries  or  special  phases 
of  tropical  agriculture.  As  will  appear  in  consulting  the  lists  of 
books  and  periodicals  given  below,  the  English,  French,  and  Dutch 
have  contributed  most  largely  to  this  subject. 

REFERENCE  BOOKS  RELATING  TO  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

Adams,  F.  U.— 

Conquest  of  the  Tropics.  Under  this  title  the  author  has  pre- 
sented a  general  treatise  on  the  banana  industry,  with  espe- 
cial reference  to  the  part  which  the  United  Fruit  Company 
has  played  in  the  development  of  the  banana  business. 
(New  York:  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  1914.) 
Bel  fort,  R.,  and  Hoyer,  A.  J.— 

All  about  Coconuts.    The  authors  have  presented  perhaps  the 
best  general  account  of  the  coconut,  with  particular  refer- 
ence to  the  increasing  and  new  industrial  uses  of  coconuts. 
(London:  St.  Catherine  Press,  1914.) 
Boery,  P.— 

Les  plantes  oleagineuses.  The  author  gives  an  account  of  the 
oils  obtained  from  coconut,  olive,  palm,  peanut,  castor  bean, 
sesame,  poppy,  and  other  oil  plants,  particularly  from  the 
viewpoint  of  the  technical  utilization  of  these  products. 
(Paris:  Petite  bibliotheque  scientifique,  1888.) 
Brannt,  W.  T. — 

India  Rubber,  Gutta-percha,  and  Batata.     The  volume  is  es- 
sentially a  treatise  on  the  botany,  cultivation,  and  impor- 
tance  of  these   products,   and  deals  with  their   industrial 
349 


350  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

treatment  and  uses.     (Philadelphia:  Henry,   Carey,  Baird 
&  Co.,  1900.) 

Brown,  E.,  and  Hunter,  H.  H. — 

Planting  in  Uganda.  On  the  basis  of  practical  experience  and 
study  of  agricultural  conditions  in  Uganda,  the  authors  give 
general  advice  to  planters  in  this  region  and  discuss  par- 
ticularly rubber,  coffee,  and  cacao.  (London:  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.,  1913.) 

Brown,  H. — 

Rubber:  Its  Sources,  Cultivation,  and  Preparation.  The  va- 
rious trees  and  other  plants  which  yield  rubber  are  thor- 
oughly discussed  in  much  detail.  Particular  attention  is  also 
given  to  an  account  of  rubber  latex  and  of  the  technical 
utilization  of  rubber.  (London:  J.  Murray,  1914.) 

Cameron,  J. — 

Firminger's  Manual  of  Gardening  for  India.  This  volume 
contains  much  practical  information  on  methods,  especially 
adapted  for  gardening  and  fruit  raising  in  India.  (Cal- 
cutta: Thacker,  Spink  &  Co.,  1904.) 

Capus,  G.,  and  Bois,  D. — 

Les  produits  coloniaux.  The  volume  treats  in  particular  de- 
tail of  timbers,  rubber,  dyes,  fibers,  perfumes,  drugs,  and 
animal  industry,  especially  ivory  and  feathers.  (Paris: 
A.  Colin,  1912.) 

Chevalier,  J.  B.  A. — 

Les  Vegetaux  utiles  de  I'Afrique  tropicale  fran$aise;  etudes 
scientifiques  et  agronomiques.  A  volume  published  in  sec- 
tions as  material  was  accumulated  by  the  researches  of  the 
author.  It  deals  quite  exhaustively  with  all  the  important 
vegetable  products  of  the  French  tropical  colonies.  (Paris: 
Author,  1905-1913.) 

Christy,  C.— 

African  Rubber  Industry.  This  is  the  best  available  discus- 
sion of  the  importance  of  the  African  rubber  tree  Funtumia 
elastica.  The  volume  contains  a  thorough  account  of  the 
botany,  cultivation,  yield,  and  uses  of  this  tree.  (London: 
J.  Bale  Sons  and  Danielson,  1911.) 

Dudgeon,  G.  C. — 

The  Agricultural  and  Forest  Products  of  British  West  Africa. 
This  volume  is  arranged  on  a  regional  plan  and  contains 
summary  accounts  of  agricultural  conditions  and  important 


APPENDIX  351 

crops,  such  as  cotton,  other  fiber  plants,  rubber,  oil  plants, 
etc.,  in  the  various  regions  of  British  West  Africa.     (Lon- 
don: J.  Murray,  1911.) 
'Dybowski,  J.  — 

Traite  pratique  de  cultures  tropicales.  In  this  volume  special 
emphasis  is  laid  on  tropical  climate  and  methods  of  propa- 
gation of  vegetables  and  fruits.  Many  details  of  particular 
use  to  tropical  planters  are  included.  (Paris:  A.  Challamel, 
1902.) 
Fawcett,  W.— 

The  Banana:  Its  Cultivation,  Distribution,  and  Commercial 
Uses.  This  book  contains  the  most  complete  and  authori- 
tative account  of  the  banana  in  all  of  its  relations.  It  is 
particularly  useful  to  the  student  in  a  study  of  the  botany 
of  the  banana  in  its  various  forms  and  species.  (London: 
Duckworth  &  Co.,  1913.) 
Foaden,  G.  P.,  and  Fletcher,  F.— 

Text-book  of  Egyptian  Agriculture.  This  two-volume  trea- 
tise contains  an  account  of  the  essential  features  of  the 
agriculture  of  Egypt,  with  particular  reference  to  soils, 
irrigation,  cotton,  and  animal  industry.  (Cairo:  National 
Printing  Department,  1908-1910.) 
Freeman,  W.  G.,  and  Chandler,  S.  E.  — 

The  World's  Commercial  Products.  As  indicated  by  the  title, 
the  authors  have  chosen  to  discuss  in  this  form  some  of  the 
chief  products  which  enter  into  international  commerce, 
including  tropical  products.  Particular  attention  is  given 
to  sugar,  coffee,  tobacco,  and  oil  plants.  (Boston:  Ginn  & 
Co.,  1907.) 
*  Van  Gorkom,  K.  W.— 

Oost-Indische  Cultures  —  edited  by  H.  C.  Prinsen-Geerligs. 
This  is  a  large  two-volume  treatise  on  the  important  eco- 
nomic plants  of  Java  and  Sumatra.  It  is  perhaps  the  most 
exhaustive  and  satisfactory  account  of  the  agricultural 
products  of  these  islands.  (Amsterdam:  J.  H.  de  Bussy, 


Haldane,  R.  C.~ 

Subtropical  Cultivations  and  Climates.  The  author  has 
brought  together  in  this  volume  much  information  on  tropi- 
cal climate,  starch  foods,  vegetable  oils,  fibers,  drugs,  tans, 
and  dyes.  These  subjects  are  treated  from  the  economic 


352  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

viewpoint    of    the    utilization    of    the    different    products. 
(Edinburgh:  W.  Blackwood  &  Sons,  1886.) 
Hanausek,  E. — 

Erdmann-Koenig's  Grundriss  der  allgemeinen  Warenkunde. 
This  large  volume  deals  in  an  encyclopedic  manner  with 
the  chief  agricultural  products  which  have  especial  impor- 
tance from  an  industrial  viewpoint.  (Leipzig:  J.  A.  Earth, 
1906.) 
Jleuze,  G.— 

Les  plantes  alimentaires  des  pays  chauds.  This  is  a  small 
handy  volume  dealing  largely  with  the  essentials  concerned 
in  the  production  of  cereals,  legumes,  fruits,  and  starchy 
foods  in  tropical  countries.  It  is  written  chiefly  from  the 
viewpoint  of  the  general  reader.  (Paris:  Maison  rustique, 

1899.) 
Johnson,  W.  H. — 

The  Cultivation  and  Preparation  of  Para  Rubber.  The  author 
has  presented  a  thorough  and  authoritative  general  account 
of  the  Para  rubber  tree,  giving  a  detailed  discussion  of  its 
distribution,  method  of  planting,  cultivation,  and  of  methods 
of  tapping  and  preparing  the  rubber.  (London:  C.  Lock- 
wood  &  Son,  1904.) 
•  Jumelle,  H.— 

Les  cultures  coloniales.  The  author  presents  in  this  volume 
a  rather  elaborate  account  of  starch  foods,  fruits,  legumes, 
beverages,  and  spices,  with  particular  reference  to  the 
extent  of  the  cultivation  of  these  crops  in  the  French 
tropical  colonies.  (Paris:  J.  B.  Bailliere  &  Sons,  1913- 

I9I50 

Kenny,  J.— 

Intensive  Farming  in  India.  In  this  book  particular  atten- 
tion is  devoted  to  fertilizers  and  the  cultivation  of  rice, 
cotton,  wheat,  sugar  cane,  tobacco,  tea,  coffee,  and  coco- 
nuts. A  discussion  of  agricultural  associations  is  also  given. 
(Madras:  Higginbotham  &  Co.,  1912.) 

Lecomte,  H. — 

Le  Vanillier.  All  the  matters  concerned  with  the  cultivation, 
harvesting,  fermentation,  and  sale  of  vanilla  are  here  dis- 
cussed in  a  thorough  and  authoritative  manner  with  ref- 
erence to  the  needs  of  both  the  planter  and  buyer.  (Paris: 
C.  Naud,  1902.) 


APPENDIX  353 

Macmillan,  H.  F. — 

A  Handbook  of  Tropical  Gardening  and  Planting.  A  general 
account  of  soils,  climate,  insect  pests,  fungous  diseases, 
methods  of  propagation  and  cultivation  in  Indian  agri- 
culture, particularly  fruits,  vegetables,  windbreaks,  cover 
crops  and  ornamentals.  (Colombo:  Cave  &  Co.,  1914.) 

Mukerji,  N.  G. — 

Handbook  of  Indian  Agriculture.  The  author  has  brought 
together  a  large  mass  of  information,  especially  useful  for 
the  native  planter  and  farmer  in  the  cultivation,  .marketing, 
and  economic  utilization  of  all  important  crops  in  India. 
(Calcutta:  Thacker,  Spink  &  Co.,  1907.) 

Nicholls,  H.  A.  A.—  . 

A  Text-book  of  Tropical  Agriculture.  This  is  a  small  volume 
dealing  in  a  general  way  with  the  more  important  tropical 
crops  of  international  commerce.  (London:  Macmillan 
&  Co.,  1892.) 

Olsson-Seffer,  P.— 

La  agricoltura  en  varios  paises  tropicales  y  subtropicales.  A 
two-volume  treatise  containing  rather  extensive  accounts  of 
important  tropical  crops  with  special  reference  to  Mexico 
and  Central  America.  (Mexico:  Secretaria  de  Fomento, 
1910.) 

Reid,  W.  M.— 

The  Culture  and  Manufacture  of  Indigo.  A  thorough  gen- 
eral account  of  the  culture  and  utilization  of  indigo  written 
at  the  time  when  this  industry  was  of  much  greater  impor- 
tance than  at  present.  (Calcutta:  Thacker,  Spink  &  Co., 
1887.) 

Ridley,  H.  N.— 

Spices.  In  this  volume  the  author  has  given  the  best  avail- 
able account  of  all  the  important  tropical  spices,  including 
their  botanical  relationships,  nature,  culture,  uses,  and  com- 
mercial importance.  (London:  Macmillan  &  Co.,  ^912.) 

Riviere,  C,  and  Lecq,  H. — 

Traite  pratique  d' agriculture  pour  le  Nord  de  I'Afrique.  The 
volume  is  devoted  to  the  agriculture  of  northern  Africa.  It 
deals  most  exhaustively  with  soil,  farm  organization,  forage 
plants,  timbers,  grapes,  fibers,  olives,  and  animal  industry. 
The  material  is  presented  largely  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  tropical  farmer.  (Paris:  A.  Challamel,  1914.) 


354  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

Sagot,  P.— 

Manuel  pratique  de  cultures  tropicales.  In  this  volume  the 
author  has  chosen  for  special  emphasis  a  discussion  of 
starch  plants,  cereals,  forage  plants,  fruits,  and  animal  in- 
dustry, particularly  camels  and  elephants.  (Paris:  A. 
Challamel,  1893-1897.) 
Savariau,  N. — 

L 'Agriculture  au  Dahomey.     The  volume  treats  particularly 
of  starch  foods,  fruits,  oil  palm,  fibers,  and  animal  indus- 
try  in   Dahomey,  particularly   from   the   viewpoint   of  the 
prospective  settler.     (Paris:  A.  Challamel,   1906.) 
Semler,  H. — 

Die  tropische  Agrikultur.    A  four-volume  cyclopedia  of  tropi- 
cal agriculture,  dealing  in  a  general  way  with  the  crops 
of  all  tropical  countries.      (Wismar:   Hinstorff  Hofbuch- 
handlung,  1886,  4  volumes.) 
Simmonds,  P.  L. —    . 

Tropical  Agriculture.  A  general  descriptive  account  of  the 
culture,  preparation  and  use,  and  the  commerce  in  more 
important  tropical  crops.  The  volume  is  written  largely 
from  the  viewpoint  of  the  general  reader.  (London:  Spon, 

1889.) 

Torrey,  J.,  and  Manders,  A.  Staines. — 

The  Rubber  Industry.  This  book  contains  the  most  impor- 
tant literary  contributions  to  the  rubber  industry  made  at  the 
London  International  Rubber  Exhibition  in  1911.  Particu- 
lar stress  is  laid  upon  the  chemistry  and  utilization  of  rub- 
ber and  upon  rubber  planting  and  the  organization  of  plan- 
tations. (London:  International  Rubber  Exhibition,  1911.) 

Trabut,  L.,  and  Mares,  R. — 

UAlgerie  Agricole  en  1906.  In  this  book  the  authors  have 
discussed  rather  elaborately  the  cultivation  and  statistics 
of  tobacco,  fiber  plants,  garden  crops,  fruits,  ornamentals, 
and  animal  industry  in  Algeria,  particularly  from  the  view- 
point of  the  prospective  buyer  of  tropical  products.  (Al- 
giers: Imprimerie  algerienne,  1906.) 

Wallace,  R.— 

Indian  Agriculture.  The  author  considered  chiefly  animal 
industry,  native  farm  methods,  rice,  millets,  forestry,  and 
incidentally  other  less  important  agricultural  crops.  (Edin- 
burgh: Oliver  and  Boyd,  1888.) 


APPENDIX  355 

Watt,  G.— 

Dictionary  of  the  Economic  Plants  of  India.  An  encyclopedic 
storehouse  of  information  on  the  botany,  importance,  culti- 
vation, and  technical  uses  of  all  kinds  of  agricultural  crops 
in  India.  (Calcutta:  Govt.  Printing  Office,  1889-1896.) 
The  Commercial  Products  of  India.  A  condensed  and  revised 
form  in  one  volume  of  the  material  contained  in  the  dic- 
tionary of  economic  plants  of  India.  (London:  John  Mur- 
ray, 1908.) 

de  Wildeman,  E. — 

Les  plantes  tropicales  de  grande  culture.  The  author  se- 
lected for  thorough  discussion  coffee,  cacao,  kola  nuts, 
vanilla,  and  bananas,  giving  in  each  case  an  account  of 
cultural  methods  and  an  indication  of  the  economic  impor- 
tance of  the  crop.  (Brussels:  A.  Cartaigne,  1908.) 

Willis,  J.  C—    - 

Agriculture  in  the  Tropics.  This  is  a  small  handbook  deal- 
ing chiefly  with  the  peculiar  agricultural  conditions  of  India 
and  the  method  of  organizing  agricultural  operations  on  a 
large  scale,  with  brief  notes  on  some  of  the  more  important 
crops.  (Cambridge:  University  Press,  1914.) 

Woodrow,  G.  M. — 

Gardening  in  the  Tropics.  In  this  volume  the  garden  crops, 
fruits,  ornamentals,  and  incidentally  other  economic  crops 
are  treated  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  tropical  farmer.  The 
first  edition  considered  only  the  conditions  in  India,  but  the 
revised  edition  is  broadened  in  its  point  of  view.  (Paisley: 
A.  Gardner,  1910.) 

PERIODICALS  RELATING  TO  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

As  will  appear  from  the  following  list  of  periodicals,  which 
deal  for  the  most  part  exclusively  with  tropical  agriculture,  the 
number  of  such  publications  is  quite  large.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered that  this  list  contains  by  no  means  all  of  such  periodicals,  but 
only  those  which  may  be  of  particular  interest  to  students  of  the 
general  subject.  In  addition  to  the  periodicals  listed  below,  one 
must  remember  that  there  are  large  numbers  of  journals  in  which 
tropical  products  are  discussed  along  with  other  farm  products. 
Such  journals  would  include  periodicals  on  paints,  oils,  perfumes, 
drugs,  tans,  dyes,  fibers,  etc. 


356  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

Agricultural  Bulletin  of  the  Federated  Malay  States.  Singapore. 
Monthly. 

L'Agricoltura  Coloniale.    Florence,  Italy.    Bi-monthly. 

Agricultural  Journal  of  British  East  Africa.  Nairobi  and  Mom- 
basa. Quarterly. 

Agricultural  Journal  of  Egypt.     Cairo.     Irregular. 

Agricultural  Journal  of  India.    Calcutta.    Quarterly. 

Agricultural  Journal  of  the  Companhia  de  Mozambique.  Beira, 
Mozambique.  Quarterly. 

Agricultural  Ledger.     Calcutta.     Irregular. 

Agricultural  News.     Barbados.     Semi-monthly. 

L' Agriculture  Pratique  des  Pays  Chauds.    Paris.    Bi-monthly. 

Agricultural  Research  Institute,  Pusa,  Bulletin.  Calcutta.  Ir- 
regular. 

Agricultural  Society  of  Trinidad  and  Tobago.  Society  paper. 
Irregular. 

Agronomia.  Boletin  de  la  Estacion  Agronomica  de  Puerto  Ber- 
toni.  Puerto  Bertoni,  Paraguay.  Monthly. 

Annales  du  Jardin  Botanique  de  Buitenzorg.  Batavia  and  Leide, 
Java.  Irregular. 

Annual  Report  of  the  Agricultural  Department.    Sierra  Leone. 

Annual  Report  upon  the  Agricultural  Department.  Southern 
Nigeria. 

Annual  Report  of  the  Agricultural  Experimental  Stations  in 
Assam.  Shillong. 

Annual  Report  of  Agricultural  Stations  in  Charge  of  the  Deputy 
Director  of  Agriculture,  Bengal.  Calcutta. 

Annual  Report  on  the  Botanical,  Forestry  and  Scientific  Depart- 
ment, Uganda  Protectorate.  Entebbe. 

Annual  Report  of  the  Camel  Specialist  (Punjab}.    Lahore,  India. 

Annual  Report  of  the  Cuban  National  Horticultural  Society. 
Havana. 

Annual  Report  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  Bombay  Presi- 
dency. Bombay. 

Annual  Report  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  Kingston, 
Jamaica. 

Annual  Report  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  Colony  of 
Mauritius. 

Annual  Report  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  Uganda  Pro- 
tectorate. Entebbe. 


APPENDIX  357 

Annual  Report  of  the  Director  of  Forestry  of  the  Philippine 
Islands.  Manila. 

Annual  Report  on  the  Experimental  Farms  in  the  Bombay  Presi- 
dency. Bombay. 

Annual  Progress  Report  on  Forest  Administration  of  the  Lower 
Provinces  of  Bengal.  Calcutta. 

Annual  Report  of  the  Imperial  Department  of  Agriculture  (India). 
Calcutta. 

Annual  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Gar- 
dens. Trinidad. 

Annuaire  Statistique  de  I'Egypte.     Cairo. 

Ar chief  voor  de  Suiker-Industrie  in  Nederlandsch-Indie.  Ir- 
regular. 

Barbados  Department  of  Agriculture.  Report  of  the  Sugar-Cane 
Experiments.  Barbados.  Irregular. 

Board  of  Commissioners  of  Agriculture  and  Forestry,  Territory 
of  Hawaii.  Biennial  Report.  Honolulu. 

Boletin  de  Agricultura.    San  Salvador.    Irregular. 

Boletim  da  Agricultura.     Sao  Paulo,  Brazil.    Irregular. 

Boletim  da  Direct oria  da  Agricultura,  Viagao,  Industria  e  Obras 
Publicas  do  Estado  da  Bahia.  Bahia,  Brazil.  Monthly. 

Boletin  de  la  Direccion  Fomento.    Lima,  Peru.    Irregular. 

Boletin  de  la  Direccion  General  de  Agricultura.  Mexico  City. 
Monthly. 

Boletim  do  Institute  Agronomico.     Sao  Paulo.    Irregular. 

Boletin  del  Ministerio  de  Fomento.  Caracas,  Venezuela.  Ir- 
regular. 

Boletin  Oficial  de  la  Secretaria  de  Agricultura,  Industria  y  Co- 
mercio.  Habana,  Cuba.  Monthly. 

Bulletin  Agricole  de  I'Algerie,  Tunisie,  Maroc.  Algiers.  Semi- 
monthly. 

Bulletin  de  V Association  Cotonniere  Coloniale.    Paris.    Irregular. 

Bulletin  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  Kingston,  Jamaica. 
Irregular. 

Bulletin  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  Trinidad.  Trinidad. 
Irregular. 

Bulletin  Economique  de  I'Indochine.  Ha-Noi,  Indo-China.  Ir- 
regular. 

Bulletin  of  the  Imperial  Institute  (at  South  Kensington).  Lon- 
don. Quarterly. 


358  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

Bulletin  de  I'Institut  Botanique  de  Buitensorg.  'S  Lands  Plan- 
tentuin.  Buitenzorg,  Java.  Irregular. 

Bulletin  van  het  Kolonial  Museum  te  Haarlem.  Amsterdam.  Ir- 
regular. 

Bulletin  de  I'OMce  Colonial.    Melun,  France.    Monthly. 

Bulletin  Officiel  de  I'Etat  Independant  du  Congo.  Brussels.  Ir- 
regular. 

Bulletin  of  the  Pan-American  Union.    Washington,  D.  C.  Monthly. 

Bulletin  de  la  Societe  d'  Horticulture  de  Tunisie.    Tunis.    Monthly. 

Bulletin  de  la  Station  de  Recherches  Forestieres  du  Nord  de 
I'Afrique.  Algiers.  Irregular. 

Cairo  Scientific  Journal.    Alexandria.    Monthly. 

Cuba  Agricola.  Revista  Mensual  Organo  de  los  Agricultores. 
Habana.  Monthly. 

The  Cuba  Magazine.    Habana.    Monthly. 

Cuba  Review.    New  York  City.     Monthly. 

Cyprus  Journal.    Nicosia,  Cyprus.    Monthly. 

Department  of  Agriculture,  Bengal.     Quarterly  Journal. 

Department  of  Agriculture,  Bombay.    Annual  Reports. 

Department  of  Agriculture,  British  East  Africa.  Annual  Report. 
London. 

Department  of  Agriculture.  Federated  Malay  States  Bulletin. 
Kuala  Lumpur,  F.M.S.  Irregular. 

Department  of  Agriculture,  Fiji.     Bulletin,  Suva.    Irregular. 

Department  of  Agriculture  in  India.  Bulletin.  Bombay.  Ir- 
regular. 

Department  of  Agriculture.  Mysore  State  Bulletin.  Bangalore. 
Irregular. 

Department  of  Agriculture,  Punjab.    Bulletin.    Lahore.    Irregular. 

Department  of  Agriculture,  Trinidad.  Bulletin.  Port-of-Spain. 
Irregular. 

Estacidn  Experimental  Agronomica  de  Cuba.  Boletin.  Habana. 
Irregular. 

Florida  Agriculturist.    DeLand,  Fla.    Weekly. 

Florida  Grower.    Tampa,  Fla.    Weekly. 

La  Hacienda.    Buffalo,  N.  Y.    Monthly. 

Hawaii  Experiment  Station  Bulletin.     Honolulu.     Irregular. 

Hawaiian  Sugar  Planters'  Station.  Bulletins.  Honolulu.  Ir- 
regular. 

Imperial  Department  of  Agriculture  in  India,  Bulletin.  Cal- 
cutta. Irregular, 


APPENDIX  359 

Imperial  Department  of  Agriculture  for  the  West  Indies.     Re- 
ports.    Barbados. 

India  Rubber  World.     New  York  City.     Monthly. 
Indian  Forest  Memoirs.    Calcutta.    Irregular. 
Indian  Tea  Association.     Pamphlets.     Calcutta.     Irregular. 
Jaarboek   van   het   Departement   van   Landbouw,   Nijverheid   en 
Handel  in  Nederlandsch-Indie.     Batavia.     Irregular. 
Jaarverslag  van  het  Proefstation  voor  de  Java-Suikerindustrie. 

Soerabaia.    Irregular. 

Journal  d1 'Agriculture  Tropicale.    Paris.    Monthly. 
Journal  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture  of  British  Guiana.    Demerara. 

Quarterly. 
Journal  of  the  Jamaica  Agricultural  Society.    Kingston,  Jamaica. 

Monthly. 
Journal  of  the  Khedivial  Agricultural  Society  and  the  School  of 

Agriculture.     Cairo,  Egypt.     Bi-monthly. 
Liverpool  University.     Institute  of  Commercial  Research  in  the 

Tropics.     Quarterly  Journal.     Liverpool  and  London. 
Louisiana  Planter  and  Sugar  Manufacturer.     New  Orleans,  La. 

Weekly. 
Mededeelingen  uitgaande  van  het  Departement  van  Landbouw. 

Batavia,  Java.    Irregular. 
Mededeelingen  van  het  Proefstation  voor  de  Java-Suikerindustrie. 

Surabaya.    Irregular. 
Memoirs  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  India.     Calcutta. 

Irregular. 
Memoirs  Scientifique  publies  par  le  Service  de  V Agriculture  du 

Ministere   des  Colonies.     Royaume   de   Belgique.     Brussels. 

Irregular. 
Memoria  presentada  por  el  Director  de  Fomento.     Lima,  Peru. 

Irregular. 
Mozambique  Department  of  Agriculture,  Lourenqo  Marques,  Mo- 

gambique.     Bulletin.    Lourenqo  Marques.     Irregular. 
Nyasaland  Department  of  Agriculture,  Annual  Report.    Zomba. 
Perfumery  and  Essential  Oil  Record.    London.     Monthly. 
Philippine  Agriculturist  and  Forester.    Los  Banos,  P.  I.    Monthly. 
Philippine  Bureau  of  Agriculture.     Bulletin.     Department  of  the 

Interior.     Manila.     Irregular. 
Philippine  Journal  of  Science.    Manila.    Irregular. 
Planting  Opinion.     Bangalore,  India.     Weekly. 
Porto  Rico  Experiment  Station  Bulletin.    Mayaguez.    Irregular. 


360  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURE 

Porto  Rico  Progress.    San  Juan,  P.  R.    Weekly. 

Rapport  Annual  Station  Agronomique,  Mauritius.    Mauritius. 

Rapport  General  de  la  Commission  du  Colon.  Cairo,  Egypt.  Ir- 
regular. 

Revista  de  Agricultura.     Santo  Domingo,  W.  I.     Monthly. 

Revista  Industrial  y  Agricola  de  Tucumdn.  Tucuman,  Argentina. 
Monthly. 

Revue  des  Cultures  Coloniales.    Paris.    Semi-monthly. 

Rice  Industry.     Houston,  Tex.    Monthly. 

Report  of  the  Agricultural  Department,  Assam.    Shillong. 

Report  of  the  Agricultural  Department,  Bengal.     Calcutta. 

Report  of  the  Agricultural  Work,  Barbados.    Barbados. 

Report  on  the  Aligarh  Agricultural  Station  of  the  United  Prov- 
inces of  Agra  and  Oudh.  Allahabad. 

Report  on  the  Cawnpore  Agricultural  Station  in  the  United  Prov- 
inces. Allahabad,  India. 

Report  on  the  Experimental  Work  of  the  Sugar  Experiment  Sta- 
tion. Jamaica  Board  of  Agriculture.  Kingston,  Jamaica. 

Report  of  the  Forest  Surveys  in  India.    Calcutta. 

Spice  Mill.    New  York  City.    Monthly. 

Sugar  Journal  and  Tropical  Cultivator.  Mackay,  Queensland. 
Monthly. 

Le  Tabac.    Paris.    Monthly. 

Tea  and  Coffee  Trade  Journal.     New  York  City.    Monthly. 

Der  Tropenpfianser.    Berlin.     Monthly. 

Tropical  Agriculturist.    Ceylon.    Monthly. 

Tropical  Life.    London.     Monthly. 

West  Indian  Bulletin.    Barbados.    Quarterly. 


INDEX 


Abaca,  173 
Abroma  august  a,  184 
Abutilon  incanum,  181 
Acacia  catechu,  223,  229 

decurrens,  230 

farnesiana,  257 

koa,  295 

Senegal,  211 

Achras  sapota,  136,  207 
Adansonia  digitata,  189 
Adzuki  bean,  310 
JEgle  marmelos,  137 
African  rubber  tree,  199 
Agathis  loranthifolia,  211 
Agathophyllum  aromaticum,  251 
Agave,  169 
Agricultural  methods  in  Tropics, 

24-28 

Albizzia  trees,  292 
Aleurites,  264-268 
Alfalfa,  307 
Algaroba,  302 
Alligator  pear,  112-114 
Allspice,  240 
Almond,  138 
Almond  oil,  279 
Alocasia,  155 
Aloes,  222 
Alpaca,  339 
Alpinia,  252 
Amatungula,  133 
Amomum  melegueta,  247 
Anacardium  occidentale,  140 
Andaman  redwood,  292 
Andropogon,  284 
Animals,  affected  by  climate,  10,  n 

domestic,  322-343 


Annatto,  236 

Anona  cherimolia,  128 

muricata,  128 

reticulata,  128 

squamosa,  128 
Apiculture,  345 
Arabic  gum,  211 
Arack  from  coconuts,  62 
Aralia  cordata,  154 
Areca  nut,  225 
Argemone  oil,  270 
Arrow  poison,  227 
Arrowroot,  151 

Arsenite  of  soda  for  weeds,  27 
Artocarpus  incisa,   157 

integrifolia,  158 

nobilis,  158 

Asclepias  curassavica,  178 
Ashantee  pepper,  247 
Ass,  African,  334 
Assam  rubber  tree,  201 
Astragalus  gummifer,  212 
Attalea  cohune,  283 

funifera,  182 
Averrhoa  bilimbi,  137 

carambola,  136 
Avocado,  112-114 
Awa,  223 


Bael  fruit,  137 

Bagasse,  53 

Balata,  206 

Balsamodendron  myrrha,  258 

Balsams,  221 

Bamboo,   192 

Bambusa  arundinacea,  192 


361 


362 


INDEX 


Banana  fiber,  175 
Banana  figs,  91 
Banana  flour,  91 
Bananas,  84-94 

composition  of,  90 

profits  from,  41 

statistics  about,  88,  89 

varieties  of,  87 
Bankul  oil,  266 
Banteng,  332 
Baobab,  189 
Baphia  nitida,  234 
Barwood,  234 
Bassia,  283 
Bay  oil,  289 
Bear  grass,  190 
Beef  cattle,  326 
Bees,  345 
Belgaum  oil,  266 
Ben  oil,  279 
Benzoin,  258 
Bergamot,  103 
Bergamot  oil,  259 
Beri-beri  and  rice  diet;  146 
Bermuda  grass,  315 
Bertholletia  excelsa,  139 
Betel  nut,  225 
Beverages,  64-81 

Bibliography  of  tropical  agricul- 
ture, 349-355 
Bilimbi,  137 
Bingo-i  mat  rush,  187 
Bird  pepper,  244 
Bixa  orellana,  236 
Black  sand,  17 
Black  tea,  71 
Blackwood,  292 
Blumea  balsamifera,  208 
Boehmeria  nivea,  176 
Bombax  malabaricum,  178 
Bonavist  bean,  311 
Books  on  tropical  agriculture,  349- 

355 

Borassus  ftabellifer,  182 
Borneo  camphor,  208 


Bos  bubalus,  330 

indicus,  327 
Boswellia  s  errata,  256 
Bowstring  hemp,  179 
Brazil  nut,  139 
Brazilwood,  233 
Breadfruit,  157 
Bromelia,  184 

Broussonetia  papyrifera,  189 
Brucine,  219 
Buffalo,  African,  331 

Indian,  330 
Bull's  heart,  128 
Bulnesia  sarmienti,  260 
Bursera,  289 
Bursera  tomentosa,  212 
Buttons,  vegetable  ivory,  297 
Butyrospermum  parkii,  282 

Cacao,  73-79 

beans,  fermentation  of,  77 
culture  and  varieties  of,  74,  75 
statistics  about,  79 

Caesalpinia,  233 

Ceesalpinia  coriaria,  231 

Cajun  fiber,  172 

Cajuput  oil,  289 

Calabar  bean,  222 

Calabacillo  cacao,  75 

Calabash  nutmeg,  251 

Calamus  rotang,  192 

Calathea  allouya,  153 

Calisaya  bark,  215 

Calophyllum  inophyllum,  212 

Calotropis  gigantea,  178 

Camel,  337 

Camellia  thea,  70 

Camphor,  208 

Camphor  oil,  288 

Camwood,  234 

Cananga  odorata,  255 

Canari  oil,  279 

Canarium  commune,  140 

Canavalia,  309 

Candellia  wax,  213 


INDEX 


365 


Candlenut  oil,  266 

Cane  sugar,  manufacture  of,  51 

tops,  burning  of,  21,  22 
Canna  edulis,  153 
Cannabis  sativa,  220 
Caoutchouc,   194 
Cape  gooseberry,  131 
Caper,  245 
Capri  fig,  in 
Capsicum  peppers,  243 
Capparis  spinosa,  245 
Carabao,  330 
Caraguata  fiber,  184 
Carambola,  136 
Carapa  oil,  282 
Caravonica  cotton,  167 
Cardamom  oil,  288 
Cardamoms,  241 
Carica  candamarcensis,  119 

erythrocarpa,  119 

papaya,  118 

peltata,  118 

querci folia,   118 
Carissa  grandiftora,  133 
Carludovica  palmata,  191 
Carmine  from  cochineal,  348 
Carnauba  wax,  213 
Carob  bean,  305 
Carthamus  tinctorius,  237 
Caryota  ureus,  182 
Cascarilla  oil,  288 
Cashew  nut,  140 
Cassaree,  150 
Cassava,  149 
Cassia,  224 
Cassia  bark,  241 
Cassie,  257 
Castilloa  elastica,  200 
Castor  oil,  277 
Catechu,  223,  229 
Cattle,  326 
Cayenne  pepper,  244 
Ceara  rubber,  198 
Cedrelaodorata,  295 
Central  American  rubber  tree,  200 


Centrifugals,  52 

Ceratonia  siliqua,  305 

Ceriman,  135 

Ceylon  crepe  rubber,  197 

Chamarops  humilis,  190 

Champaca  oil,  260 

Chaulmoogra  oil,  281 

Chayote,  158 

Chenopodium  quinoa,  148 

Cherimoyer,  128 

Chewing  gum,  207 

Chick  pea,  306 

Chicle,  207 

Chilies,  243 

China  grass  (see  Ramie) 

Chinawood  oil,  264 

Chinese  cassia  bark,  242 

Chinese  mat  rush,  186 

Chinese  pigs,  335 

Chinese  vegetable  tallow,  281 

Chlorosis  of  pineapples,  19 

Chocolate,  78,  79 

Chrysophyllum  cainito,  134 

Cibotium,  192,  319 

Cinnamomum  camphora,  208 

Cinnamon,  242 

Cinnamon  oil,  286 

Cinchona,  214 

Citron,   103 

Citronella  grass  oil,  284 

Citrus  aurantifolia,  102 

aurantium,  103 

bergamia,  103 

grandis,  102 

japonica,  103 

limonia,  102 

medico,  103 

nobilis,  104 

sinensis,  102 

trifoliata,  103 

Citrus  fruit,  sweating  of,  106 
Citrus  fruits,  101-106 
Clarification  of  cane  juice,  52 
Clausena  lansium,  133 
Climate,  affected  by  forests,  5 


364 


INDEX 


Climate,  tropical,  1-15 

effect  of,  on  animals,  10,  n 
on  man,  11-15 
on  plants,  7-10 
Clitandra,  201 
Clove  nutmeg,  251 
Clove  oil,  287 
Cloves,  248 
Cocaine,  216 

Cochineal  production,  347 
Cocoa,  78,  79 
Cocoa  butter,  78,  281 
Coconut  butter,  60 
Coconut  desiccated  and  shredded, 

6r 

Coconut  oil,  60 
Coconuts,  56-63 

fertilizers  for,  59 

planting  of,  58 

statistics  about,  63 

varieties  of,  57 

world's  production  of,  57 
Cocos  nucifera,  56 
Codeine,  218 
Coffea  arabica,  64 

excelsa,  69 

Uberica,  64 

robusta,  64 

stenophylla,  69 
Coffee,  64-69 

culture  of,  66 

leaf  blight  of,  65 

roasting  of,  67 
Cohune  oil,  283 
Coir,  61 

Coix  lachryma,  147 
Co  la  acuminata,  80 
Cold  storage,  for  avocado,  114 

of  tropical  fruits,  30 
Colocasia,   155 
Commelina  nudiflora,  318 
Commerce    in    tropical    products, 

29-34 

Cooking  bananas,  91 
Cooperative  associations,  39 


Copaiba  balsam,  220 

Copal  resin,  211 

Copernicia  cerifera,  213 

Copra,  60 

Coral  sand  soils,  19 

Corchorus,  169 

Cordyline  terminalis,  159 

Coriander,  245 

Cork,  297 

Corkwood,  297 

Corozo,  297 

Cotton,   167-169 

Cottonseed  oil,  271 

Cowpeas,  308 

Criollo  cacao,  75 

Crocus  sativus,  238 

Crops  affected  by  climate,  7-10 

Crotalaria  as  cover  crop,  26 

Crotalana  juncea,  182 

saltiana,  310 
Croton  eleutheria,  288 
Croton  oil,  227 

Cry p tost egia  grandiflora,  178,  201 
Cuba  bast,  181 
Cubeb  oil,  288 
Cubebs,  219 

Cultivation  of  tropical  soils,  24-28 
Cummin,  245 
Cummin  oil,  288 
Curcuma,  251,  252 
Curry  powder,  245 
Custard  apples,  128 
Cutch,  229 
Cycas  circinalis,  149 
Cyperus  papyrus,  186 

tegetiformis,  186 

Dairying,  323 
Dammar  resin,  211 
Dammar  a  australis,  211 
Dasheens,  155 
Date  palm,  109-111 
Deccan  hemp,  180 
Devil's  cotton,  184 
Dioscorea  alata,  153 


INDEX 


Dio scored   globosa,  153 

sativa,  153 
Diospyros  kaki,  138 
Dipterocarpaceae,  291 
Dipterocarpus  turbinatus,  286 
Dipteryx  odorata,  256 
Diseases  of  plants,  28 

in  Tropics,  u,  12 
Divi-divi  pods,  231 
Domestic  animals,  322-343 
Drainage  in  Tropics,  20 
Dromedary,  337 
Drugs,  214-227 
Drying  oils,  264 
Dryobalanops  aromatica,  208 
Ducks.  341 
Durian,  134 
Dyera  costulata,  206 
Dyes  and  tans,  228-238 
Dyestuffs,  artificial,  228 
Dynamite,  use  in  loosening  soils, 
20 

Eboc  oil,  266 

Ebony,   292 

Economic  conditions   in  Tropics, 

35-42 

Edgeworthia  papyrifera,  188 
Egyptian  cotton,  167 
Elais  guineensis,  280 
Elephants,  339 
Elettaria  cardamomum,  241 
Eleusine  caracana,  147 
Enfleurage,  258 
Eng  tree,  291 
Eriobotrya  japonipa,  129 
Eriodendron  anfractuosum,  177 
Erosion  by  wind,  6 
Erythroxylon  coca,  216 
Eserine,  222 
Esparto  grass,  185 
Essential  oils,  284-289 
Eucalyptus  as  windbreak,  26 
Eucalyptus  oil,  285 
Eucalyptus  wood,  294 


Eugenia  caryophyllata,  248 

jambos,  131 

malaccensis,  130 

micheli,    131 
Euphorbia  antisyphilitica,  213 

calyculata,  227 

Ion folia,  208 

Evaporation  of  cane  juice,  52 
Exercise  in  Tropics,  13,  14 
Exogonium  purga,  223 

Fats,  vegetable,  280 
Fatsia  papyrifera,  188 
Feijoa,  122 
Ferns  as  forage,  318 
Fertilizers  for  bananas,  87 

for  coconuts,  59 

for  rice,  145 

for  sugar  cane,  47 
Fiber  plants,  166-192 
Ficus  carica,  in 

elastica,  201 
Fig,  in,  112 
Flavorings,  239-254 
Flax,  New  Zealand,  179 
Floss,  177 

Foods  in  Tropics,  15 
Forage  plants,  301-321 
Forastero  cacao,  75 
Forests  and  rainfall,  6 
Fowls,  340 
Frangipani,  259 
Frankincense,  256 
Fruits,  82-138 

commercial  importance  of,  29 

temperate  in  Tropics,  83,  84 

tropical,  cold  storage  for,  30 
Funtumia  elastica,  199 
Furcraea,  172 
Fustic  wood,  232 

Galangal,  252 
Gambier,  229 
Gamboge,  232 
Ganpi,  188 


366 


INDEX 


Garcinia  cambogia,  232 

mangostana,  127 
Gaur,  331 
Gayal,  331 
Geranium  oil,  260 
Ginger,  249 
Ginger  oil,  287 
Goat  milk,  325 
Goats,   336 

Golden  shower  tree,  225 
Goose  production,  341 
Gossypium,  167 
Grains  of  paradise,  247 
Granadilla,   132 
Grapefruit,  102 
Grasses,  312-316 
Grazing,  effect  on  forests,  6 
Green  tea,  71 
Grevillea  r obits ta,  24 
Grinding  sugar  cane,  51 
Guaiacum  resin,  212 
Guar,  311 
Guarana,  81 
Guava,  121 
Guayule,  202 
Guinea  fowl,  341 
Guinea  grass,   313 
Guizotia  oleifera,  270 
Gum  arabic,  211 

chewing,  207 
Gum  tragacanth,  212 
Gums  and  resins,  211 
Gur,  55 

Gurjun  balsam,  286 
Gutta-percha,  205 
Gynocardia  oil,  269 

Habana,  healthfulness  of,  12 
Half-breeds  in  Tropics,  38 
Hashish,  220 

Hematoxylon  campechianum,  231 
Hemp,  bowstring,  179 

Deccan,  180 

Indian,  220 

Manila,  173 


Hemp,  Mauritius,  172 

sunn,  182 

Hemp-seed  oil,  269 
Henequen,  169 
Henna,  235 

Hevea  brasiliensis,  197 
Hibiscus  fibers,  180 

sabdariffa,  125 
Hogs,  334 

Homesteads  in  Hawaii,  37 
Honohono,  318 
Horses,  332 

Humidity  in  Tropics,  2 
Humus  in  tropical  soils,  21,  22 
Hydnocarpus  oil,  281 
Hygiene  in  Tropics,  11-15 
Hymen&a  courbaril,  211 

Ilex  Paraguay  ensis,  80 

fllicium  verum,  289 

Illipe  oil,  284 

Imports,  tropical  in  United  States, 

32 

Indian  hemp,  220 
Indigo,  234 
Insects  in  Tropics,  27 
Ipecac  plant,  219 
Iron  content  in  soils,  17 
Ironwood  as  windbreak,  26 
Istle.  fiber,  172 
Ivory,  vegetable,  297 

Jaborandi,  227 

Jack  bean,  309 

Jackfruit,  158 

Jaggery,  55 

Jaggery  from  coconuts,  62 

Jalap,  223 

Jamaica  ginger,  249 

Japan  wax,  283 

Japanese  wood  oil  tree,  265 

Jatropha  curcas,  227 

Jelutong,  206 

Jippa-jappa  hats,  191 

Job's  tears,  147 


INDEX 


367 


Journals   of   tropical   agriculture, 

355-360 
Jujube,  135 
Juncus  effusus,  187 
Jute,  169 

Kahoolawe  Island,  5 
Kapok,  177 
Kapok  oil,  274 
Karri,  294 
Kauri  copal,  211 
Kauri  pine,  293 
Kava-kava,  225 
Kekune  oil,  266 
King  wood,  292 
Klu,  257 
Koa,  295 

Kokune  butter,  283 
Kola  nuts,  80 
Kona  winds,  3 
Kudzu  bean,  310 
Kukui  oil,  267 
Kulthi,  311 
Kumquat,  103 

Lablab  bean,  311 
Labor  in  Tropics,  36 
Lace  bark  tree,  191 
Lagetta  lintearia,  191 
Lanai  Island,  5 
Landlordism  in  Tropics,  35 
Landolphia,  201 
Laterite  soils,  17 
Latex,  coagulation  of,  195 

properties  of,  195 

systems  of,  194 
Lauhala  mats,   190 
Lava,  changes  in,  22 
Lava  soils,  16 
Lawsonia  alba,  235 
Leaching  of  soils,  16 
Legumes,  301-312 
Lemon,  102 
Lemon  grass  oil,  284 
Lemon  oil,,  2$ 


Leopoldinia  piassaba,  182 

Lignaloe  oil,  289 

Lignum  vitae,  293 

Lime,  102 

Lime  oil,  287 

Limus,  159 

Litchi,  124 

Literature  of  tropical  agriculture, 

349-360 

Live  stock  in  Tropics,  322-343 
Llama,  339 
Lleren,  153 
Logwood,  231 
Long  pepper,  247 
Longan,  125 
Loquat,  129 
Lotus,  158 

Loxopterygium  lorenizii,  230 
Luff  a  agyptiaca,  192 
Lunar  rainbows,  7 

Macadamia  ternifolia,  141 

Mace,  250 

Mace  butter,  282 

Madura  tinctoria,  232 

Madder,  236 

Maguey  fiber,  172 

Majagua  as  windbreak,  25 

Majagua  fiber,  181 

Mahoe  fiber,  181 

Mahogany,  293 

Malay  apple,  130 

Mamara  cotton,  167 

Mammee  apple,  132 

Man  affected  by  tropical  climate, 

11-15 

Mancono  wood,  293 
Mandarin  oranges,  103 
Manganese,   effect  on  pineapples, 

19 

in  soils,  18 

Mangifera  indica,  114 
Mango,  114-118 
Mango  anthracnose,  117 
Mangosteen,  127 


368 


INDEX 


Mangosteen  oil,  283 
Mangrove,  229 
Manitoba  rubber,  198 
Manihot  aipi,  150 

glaziovii,  198 
Manihot  oil,  270 
Manihot  rubber,  198 
Manihot  utilissima,  150 
Manila  hemp,  173 
Manioc,  149 

Maranta  arundinacea,  151 
Massecuite,  52 
Mastic  resin,  212 
Mat  rush,  Chinese,  186 
Mate,  80 

Mauritius  hemp,  172 
Melaleuca  cajuputi,  289 
Mesquite,  302 

Metrosideros  polymorpha,  296 
Metroxylon  rumphii,  149 
Michelia  champaca,  260 
Milk  from  buffaloes,  324 

from  zebu,  325 

production  of,  in  Tropics,  n 

yield  of,  from  cows,  324 
Milkweed  fibers,  178 
Millets,  147 
Mimusops  batata,  206 
Mitsumata,  188 
Molasses,  52 

Mono  dor  a  myristica,  251 
Monsoons,  3 
Monstera  deliciosa,  135 
Moringa  pterygosperma,  279 
Morphine,  218 
Moth  bean,  311 
Mowra  fat,  283 
Mules,  332 
Mungo  bean,  312 
Murraya  kceningii,  245 
Musa  {see  Bananas) 

basjoo,  175 

textiles,  173 

Musk  mallow  fiber,  180 
Myristica  fragrans,  250 


Myroxylon  pereira,  221 
Myrrh,  258 

Nandu  feathers,  343 
Natal  plum,  133 
Natal  red-top  grass,  314 
Nelumbium  speciosum,  158 
Nephelium  lappaceum,  125 

litchi,  124 

longana,  125 
Neroli  oil,  258 
New  Zealand  flax,  179 
Ngai  camphor,  208 
Nicotiana  rustica,  164 

tab  a  cum,   164 
Niger  seed  oil,  270 
Nipa  palm,  190 
Non-drying  oils,  276 
Nut  butter,  60 
Nutmeg,  250 
Nutmeg  butter,  282 
Nuts,  138-141 
Nux  vomica,  218 

0 co tea  caudata,  289 
Ohelo  berry,  137 
Ohia  wood,  296 
Oil,  bergamot,  259 

castor,  277 

champaca,  260 

champaca  wood,  260 

China  wood,  264 

clove,  287 

coconut,  60 

cottonseed,  271 

croton,  227 

geranium,  260 

Gynocardia,  269 

hemp-seed,  269 

kekune,  266 

kukui,  267 

Manihot,  270 

of  neroli,  258 

olive,  276 

palm,  280 


INDEX 


369 


Oil,  palmarosa,  260 

peanut,  278 

Perilla,  268 

petit-grain,  259 

poppy- seed,  270 

safflower,  269 

sesame,  275 

soy  bean,  272 

Stillingia,  268 

tung,  264 
Oils,  263-289 
Okra  fiber,  181 
Olea  europaa,  107 
OHbanum,  256 
Olive,  106-109 

pickling  of,  108 
Olive  oil,  276 
Olona  fiber,  184 
Opium,  217 

Opportunities  in  Tropics,  35-42 
Orange,  Chinese,  103 

sour,   103 

sweet,  1 02 
Orange  oil,  287 
Osage  orange,  233 
Ostrich  farming,  341 
Otaheite  apple,  138 
Otto  of  rose,  261 


Palaquium  gutta,  205 
Palm  oil,  280 
Palmarosa  oil,  260 
Palmetto  palm,  190 
Palmyra  palm,  182 
Panama  hat  plant,  191 
Pandanus,  189 
Papain,  120 

Papaver  somniferum,  217 
Papaya,  118-121 
Paper  mulberry,  189 
Papyrus,  186 
Para  grass,  312 
Para  rubber,  197 
Para  seed  oil,  270 


Paraguay  tea,  80 

Parasites    for    control    of    insect 

pests,  28 

Parchment  of  coffee,  67 
Parthenium  argentatum,  202 
Paspalum  conjugatum,  314 

dilatatum,  314 
Passiflora  edulis,  132 

lauri folia,  132 

quadrangularis ',  132 
Passion  fruit,  132 
Patchouli  oil,  288 
Paullinia  sorbilis,  81 
Pea  berry  coffee,  68 
Peanut  oil,  278 
Pelargonium  capitatum,  260 
Pepper,  black  and  white,  246 

capsicum,  243 
Perfumes,  255-262 
Perilla  oil,  268 
Periodicals  of  tropical  agriculture, 

355-300 

Pernambuco  wood,  234 
Persea  gratissima,  112 
Persimmon,  Japanese,  138 
Peru  balsam,  221 
Petit-grain  oil,  259 
Phaseolus  semierectus,  312 
Phcenix  dactylifera,  109 
Phormium  tenax,  179 
Physalis  peruviana,  131 
Physic  nut,  227 
Physostigma  venenosum,  222 
Phytelaphus  macrocarpa,  297 
Piassava  fiber,  182 
Picrasma  excelsa,  226 
Pigeon  pea,  305 
Pigs,  334 
Pili  nut,  140 
Pilocarpin,  227 
Pilocarpus  jaborandi,  227 
Pina  cloth,  183 
Pineapple  fiber,  183 
Pineapples,  94-101 

black  rot  of ..  99 


370 


INDEX 


Pineapples,  canning  of,  100 

cultivation  of,  95 

in  cold  storage,  98 

juice  of,  100 

profits  from,  41 

ripening  of,  97 

shipment  of,  98 
Piper  cubeba,  219 

clusii,  247 

longum,  247 

methysticum,  225 

nigrum,  246 
Pimento,  acris,  289 
Pimento,  240 
Pimento  oil,  288 
Pipturus  gaudichaudianus,  189 
Pistacia  lentiscus,  212 

vera,  141 
Pistachio  nut,  141 
Pita  fiber,  172 
Plantain  (see  Bananas) 
Plant  diseases  in  Tropics,  28 
Plantation  rubber,  197 
Plants  affected  by  climate,  7-10 
Plowing  heavy  soils,  21 
Plumeria,  259 

Pogostemon  patchouli,  288 
Poha,  132 
Pomegranate,  123 
Pomelo,  102 
Pongam  oil,  282 
Poppy-seed  oil,  270 
Porto  Rican  pea,  305 
Potash  in  molasses,  52 

in  volcanic  cinder,  17 
Potatoes,  sweet,  152 
Poultry,  340 

Precipitation  in  Tropics,  4 
Prickly  pear,  317 
Profits  in  tropical  agriculture,  40 
Prosopis  julifiora,  302 
Prunus  amygdalus,  139 
Psidium  cattleianum,  122 

guajava,  121 
Psycho tria  ipecacuanha,  219 


Pulu,  191 

Punica  granatum,  123 

Quassia,  226 
Quebracho,  230 
Queensland  arrowroot,  153 
Queensland  nut,  141 
Quinin,  214 
Quinoa,   148 

Races  in  Tropics,  35-42 

Raffia,  185 

Ragi,  147 

Rainbows,  7 

Rainfall  in  Tropics,  4,  5 

Rainy  seasons,  4 

Rambutan,  12" 

Ramie,  176 

Rape-seed  oil,  276 

Raphia  ruffia,  185 

Raphionacme  utilis,  201 

Rattan,  192 

Rattoons,  46 

Ravensara  nuts,  251 

Red  pepper,  244 

Refrigeration  of  tropical  fruits,  30 

Resins  and  gums,  211 

Rhea  feathers,  343 

Rhizophora,  229 

Rhodes  grass,  313 

Rhus  cotinus,  233 

succedanea,  283 
Rice,   143-147 
Rice  oil,  278 
Rice  paper  plant,  188 
Rice  straw,  188 
Root  rubbers,  201 
Rose,  otto  of,  261 
Rose  apple,  131 
Roselle,  125 
Roselle  fiber,  181 
Rosewood,  292 
Rubber,  193-204 

artificial,  196 
Rubber  vines,  201 


INDEX 


371 


Rubia  tinctorum,  236 
Rushes  for  matting,  186,  187 

Saccharum  officinarum,  43 

Sachet  powder,  258 

Safflower,  237 

Safflower  oil,  269 

Saffron,   238 

Sago,  149 

Sal  tree,  291 

Sandalwood,  286,  294 

Sandalwood  oil,  285 

Sandalwood  pony,  332 

Sanitation  in  Tropics,  11-15 

Sansevieria,  179 

Sapodilla,  136 

Sappanwood,  234 

Sarsaparilla,  223 

Satinwood,  295 

Schleichera  trijuga,  346 

Screw  pine,  189 

Sea  Island  cotton,  167 

Seaweed,  159 

Sechium  edule,  158 

Semi-drying  oils,  271 

Senna,  224 

Sesame  oil,  275 

Settlers,  opportunities  in  Tropics, 

36 

Shaddock,  102 
Shade  crops,  24 
Shading  young  plants,  24 
Shea  butter,  282 
Sheep,  335 

Shellac  production,  346 
Shorea  robusta,  291 
Silk  cotton,  177 
Silk  grass,  184 
Silk  production,  344 
Silky  oak,  24 
Silos  in  Tropics,  320 
Silver  skin  of  coffee,  67 
Sisal,  169-173 
Smilax,  223 
Smoke  tree,  233 


Smyrna  fig,  in 

Social  conditions  in  Tropics,  35-42 

Soils,  importance  of  texture,  23 

in  Tropics,  16-23 
Sour  sop,  128 
Soy  bean,  306 
Soy  meal,  273 
Soy  milk,  273 
Soy  oil,  272 
Soya  sauce,  274 
Spices,  239-254 
Spondias  dukis,  138 
Sponge  cucumber,  192 
Spraying  to  kill  weeds,  27 
Squill,  224 
Star  anise  oil,  289 
Star  apple,  134 
Starch  from  cassava,  151 
Starchy  foods,  142 
Steam  plows,  22,  23 
Sterculia  oil,  279 
Stillingia  oil,  268 
Stillingia  sebifera,  281 
Stipa  tenacissiwia,  185 
Strophanthus,  227 
Strychnin,  219 
Strychnos,  218 
Styrax  benzoin,  258 
Sudan  grass,  316 
Sugar  cane,  43-55 

burning  of,  21,  22 

composition  of,  45 

fertilizers  for,  47 

for  silage,  320 

harvesting  of,  50 

manufacture  of,  51 

mills  for,  51 

payment  for,  54 

planting  of,  49 

plowing  for,  49 

profit  from,  40 

statistics  about,  53,  54 

trash  as  feed,  319 

varieties  of,  43 

water  requirements  for,  46 


372 


INDEX 


Sunn  hemp,  182 
Surinam  cherry,  131 
Sweet  potatoes,  152 
Sweet  sop,  128 
Swietenia  mahogani,  293 
Swine,  334 
Sword  bean,  309 

Tacamahaca  resin,  212 

Tacca,  152 

Tachardia  lacca,  346 

Tamarind,  124 

Tampico  fiber,  172 

Tangerines,  104 

Taniers,  155 

Tans  and  dyes,  228-238 

Tapa,  189 

Tapioca,  151 

Tapping  rubber  trees,  196 

Taraktogenos  kurzii,  281 

Taro,  155 

Tea,  70-73 

fermentation  of,  71 

grades  and  trade  names  of,  71, 
72 

statistics  about,  70,  71 
Tea  oil,  279 
Teakwood,  296 

Temperature  of  Tropics,  2,  3 
Terra  Japonica,  229 
Theobroma  cacao,  74 

pentagona,  75 
Thespesia  populnia,  181 
Thunderstorms  in  Tropics,  4 
Ti  as  a  food  plant,  159 
Timbers,  290-300 
Titanium  in  soils,  19 
Tobacco,  160-165 

curing  of,  162 

grading  of,  165 
Toddy  from  coconuts,  62 
Tolu  balsam,  221 
Tonka  bean,  256 
Touchardia  latifolia,  184 
Trade  in  tropical  products,  29-34 


Trade  winds,  3 

Tragacanth,  gum,  212 

Tree  ferns,  318 

Tricholana  rosea,  314 

Tronadora  fiber,  181 

Tropical  climate,  1-15 

Tropical  foods,  15 

Tropical  imports  in  United  States, 

32 
Tropical  policy  for  United  States, 

42 
Tropical  products,  importance  of, 

29-34 

Tropical  soils,  16-23 
Tropics  and  white  farmers,  37 

area  of,  33 

areas  of,  in  crops,  34 

defined,  2 

development  of,  33 

economic  conditions  in,  35-42 

need  for  agricultural  experts  in, 
39 

opportunities  in,  35-42 

social  conditions  in,  35-42 
Tung  oil,  264 
Tunis  grass,  316 
Turkeys,  341 
Turmeric,  251 

Udo,  154 

Uncaria  gambir,  223,  229 

Urginia  scilla,  224 

Vaccinmm  reticidatum,  137 
Vacuum  pans,  52 
Vanilla,  252-254 
Vanillin,  artificial,  254 
Vanillon,  254 
Vegetable  ivory,  297 
Vegetaline,  60 
Velvet  bean,  307 
Vetiver,  261 
Violet  wood,  292 
Volcanic  cinder,  17 


INDEX 


373 


Volcanic  soils,  16 
Vulcanization  of  rubber,  193 

Wampi,  133 
Water  grass,  314 
Water  lemon,  132 
Wattle  bark,  230 
Wax,  213 

Weeds,  destruction  of,  by  chemi- 
cals, 27 

West  Indian  cedar,  295 
White  man  as  tropical  farmer,  37 
Wi  apple,  138 
Wikstrcemia  cane sc ens,  188 
Windbreaks,   25 
Wind  erosion,  6 
Winds  in  Tropics,  3 
Wine  palm,  182 
Winged  bean,  311 


Wood  oil  tree,  264 
Woods,  290-300 

Xanthosoma,  155 
Xanthostemon,  293 

Yam,  153 
Yautias,  155 
Ylang-ylang,  255 
Yucca  filament osa,  190 

Zapupe,  172 
Zebra,  334 
Zebroids,  334 
Zebu,  327 
Zedoary,  252 
Zingiber  officinale,  249 
Zisyphus  jujuba,  135 
vulgaris,  136 


(1) 


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